Stars Hollow High
by EatenByATurtle
Summary: An AU fic where Lorelai starts school at Stars Hollow High, she will go through the high school journey with Luke, Sookie and several other familiar faces. Java Junkie.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I just finished this chapter and I'm too tired to proofread it so apologies if you see a bunch of mistakes, I will fix them later. This story is one of the many I've had outlined in my notebook for over a year now and one of the few I have made into chapter form, so if you think it's a story worth continuing let me know and I'll get another chapter up as soon as possible. Thanks for reading and please enjoy!

This spot seemed far too familiar, although mid staircase was the perfect place for eavesdropping it was extremely uncomfortable. Lorelai slowly shifted again trying to make sure the floor wouldn't creak while she listened to her parents discussing her recent inconvenience to them, it had already been twenty minutes of back and forth between the two trying to figure out what was the best move to make next.

"Calm down, Emily." Richard hissed in a tone that could only make Emily more distraught.

"I will not calm down, don't tell me to calm down! This is the second school she has been kicked out of this year and it is only October!"

"I know that, but there isn't much we can do about it anymore."

"What are we supposed to do now? She has been kicked out of every private school in the area."

"She could do homeschooling, at least then we would know she was staying out of trouble."

"Please, dear god, no!" Lorelai whispered to herself.

"I can barely keep her attention through a dinner conversion, there is no way I can be her teacher."

"Okay, what about the public schools they recommended?"

Emily's face changed to pure disgust at the very thought of it. "Public schools? Do you really want our daughter going to a public school, Richard?"

"No Emily, but it is the only option we have unless you are considering sending her to boarding school."

"I certainly am not."

"Then we have to pick a public school, they gave us a whole list to look through. I'm sure we can find something suitable for her."

"Fine." Emily shook her head still unhappy with the idea but feeling as it was the only option left. "Lorelai, get down here!" She yelled, Lorelai stood up and waited a few seconds before walking down the rest of the stairs.

"Yes?" She said moseying into the living room, she caught her mom's glance right away.

"Sit down." She said pointing to a spot on the couch, Lorelai took a seat and her parents sat down across from her. Emily pulled a sheet of paper out of her purse she had been given by the dean earlier, right between yelling at the vice principal and storming out the door. She handed it over to Richard.

"Your mother and I have been talking about what to do about our situation now and we have came to a conclusion." He said then unfolded the sheet of paper. "We are going to look through this list of public schools together and see which seems to be the best fit for both us and you."

"Public school? Like no school uniforms and no preppy rich kids?" She said, trying to hide her excitement.

"This is not a reward, Lorelai." Emily said in a harsher tone. "As your father pointed out to me, this is your only option."

"This is your last resort and therefore your last chance, anything past this point will be boarding school. The school we pick will be the one you will be attending till graduation." Richard stated.

"Which means no talking back to teachers, no ditching school, no changing lesson plans to include the history of swear words, no sneaking into the office and talking over the microphone and no stealing a teacher's hamster because they gave you detention."

"I gave it back." She defended.

"Do you understand me, Lorelai?"

"Yes mom, I understand you." She nodded before her eyes went over to the list in her father's hands. "Can I see the list?" She asked, Richard stretched out his arm handing it over to her. "Do I get to pick?" She questioned, already assuming what the answer to that would be. Richard and Emily both shared a glance. He shrugged making it Emily's decision, she turned back and looked at Lorelai.

"Sure, why not. It's not like there is a difference between any of those god awful schools anyways."

"Really?" Lorelai asked stunned.

"Yes, but we are giving you this chance to make the right decision about where you truly think will help you succeed." Richard said, Lorelai looked down at the paper in her hands and started reading through all the schools on the list. Every school sounded exactly the same but one of them seemed to caught her attention, she slid the paper over to her parents and pointed at one on the list.

"How about this one?" Lorelai asked.

Richard perched his glasses on his nose and read, "Stars Hollow High?"

"Stars Hollow, that is almost thirty minutes away." Emily said.

"But I can take the bus there."

Emily shook her head. "You are not taking the bus to school, drug dealers take the bus."

"You said I could pick the school, mom."

"Lorelai, why would you even want to go to this school?" Emily looked over the description then pointed to the school population. "It has less than three hundred students attending it."

"That is actually why." Lorelai said standing up. "All my life I have been going to school with hundreds of other students, for once I would like to go to a school that isn't the size of the Shanghai Tower. I'm tired of getting lost on the way to the bathroom and not knowing half of the other students names."

"Well you are not taking the bus."

"How else am I supposed to get there? Unless you plan to have a private helicopter fly me there every morning, which I wouldn't suggest because those things wreak havoc with your hair and that's no way to make a good first impression."

"I will drive you." Emily stated.

Lorelai look at them hopefully. "So you are saying I can go?"

"We will call them tomorrow to set up an orientation." Richard said.

"Oh, I don't need an orientation. Like mom said, it's a small school so I shouldn't have a problem finding my way around." Lorelai said quickly, knowing she couldn't let her parents walk around a public school that she was actually interested in, they would probably change their minds and send her to boarding school instead.

"Alright, well then we will call them tomorrow morning and see when you can start." Richard said and Lorelai smiled.

The following Monday Lorelai walked the halls of Stars Hollow High, keeping her head down since she was ten minutes in and already having a bad first day. Initially it started as soon as she arrived in front of the building, her mother made several comments about the town and the school that clearly showed she disapproved of the idea of her going here, along with her sticky locker and the insane room numbering system they had at this school she was sure she wouldn't make it to her first class in time or possibly not even find it at all. The worst part was the whispers, all down the hallway she heard them. Groups of people pointing her out, odd stares and the amount of ahh's she heard after they said she got kicked out of private school, and she thought private schools had a lot of gossip. While she was too busy reading each room number, not paying any attention to where she was walking she ran straight into the person in front of her and sent both of their things flying out of their hands onto the floor.

"Perfect." Lorelai said before kneeling down, she started picking up her stuff.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry." The girl said helping her pick up everything laying on the hallway floor.

"No, it's my fault. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

"No, I'm a clutz. You are the fourth person I took out this week, I just start thinking and I forget what I'm doing then bam!" She smacked her hands together making a crashing sound. "I'm so sorry."

"Well it is really alright, it was more my fault than yours. I wasn't watching in front of me or I could have jumped out of the way." Lorelai said assuring her it wasn't her fault. "I was looking up at room numbers, I've been looking all over for a classroom that I haven't had any luck finding it. I'm actually regretting not listening to my parents and having an orientation, which is not a good feeling to have. "

"What's the class? Maybe I could help you."

"Ahh." She looked at her schedule and read. "Mister Leroy's History class."

"I'm heading there right now, you can walk with me if you want."

"Are you serious, that would help so much."

"Yeah, of course." Sookie started walking down the hall and Lorelai followed. "So you are a sophomore too?"

"Yup, and I'm Lorelai by the way." Lorelai said holding out her hand.

She shook it with a wide smile. "I'm Sookie."

"It's nice to meet you Sookie, and today you are my savior."

"Glad to help, I remember what first days are like."

Lorelai looked around at the other students and whispered, "Well it would be a lot better if the whole school wasn't staring at me."

She laughed. "It's just that kind of town, next week someone will set the class kitchen on fire and everyone will be talking about that instead.. Well at least that is what happened last time I took home ec." She said then they walked into the classroom and found a couple seats in the back, Lorelai looked around the room ignoring the stares and the guys smiling at her.

"Seems so strange being in such a small classroom."

"Yeah, I suppose these rooms are much smaller than the ones at private schools."

Lorelai exhaled. "Oh, so you have heard about that."

"Sometimes it is hard not to hear things around here."

"Hopefully you haven't heard anything too bad about me."

"Not anything I would believe anyways, I learned to ignore ninety-five percent of whatever people say at this school." She said then the bell rang, moments after the teacher started talking a student walked into the classroom.

The teacher and all the students looked over at him. "Late again, mister Danes." Mister Leroy said, the boy didn't say a word. He walked to the back of the classroom taking a seat right next to Lorelai, he glanced over at her a moment obviously noticing she was new then turned his head back to his desk before opening his notebook and taking notes. Throughout the class Lorelai would find herself looking over at him, watching how focused he was on what he was writing in his notebook, filling the pages full before flipping to the next. The second the school bell rung signifying the end of class he stood up and was out of the room before any other student had even stood up.

Lorelai watched him leave then looked over at Sookie. "He's in a hurry." She joked before they stood up and gathered their things.

"Luke is always the first one out the door at the end of class, and the last one in class at the beginning weirdly enough." Sookie lead her to the door and out to the hallway. "So where is your next class?"

"Um." Lorelai reached in her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. "Here, look at this." She said handing Sookie her schedule, she looked over it as they walked then smiled.

"You have most of the same classes I do other than two in the morning and one in the afternoon, I don't have gym, science or home ec with you." She handed her schedule back to Lorelai.

Lorelai folded it up and shoved it back into her front pocket. "Oh good, so you have English with me next?"

"Yup, I already have my books for next class. We could stop by your locker, get your stuff then head to the classroom."

"I have my books too." She patted on the pile of books she was carrying. "I grabbed all my stuff for the next three classes since I wasn't sure when I would get back into that locker."

"It sticking on you?"

"Yeah, luckily I snuck some extra pop tarts for breakfast this morning or I might not have had the energy to fight the thing open."

"I've heard a lot of compliments about these lockers, they never will get new ones though. Guess that is what you get for being in a small town, nothing ever changes."

"That has to be nice sometimes though, having things remain the same would seem so comfortable."

"Yeah, it is." Sookie smiled and looked over at Lorelai. "I take it you are used to a lot of changes."

Lorelai nodded. "I've been in six different schools in the last two years so change has kind of become a routine for me." She said as she followed Sookie into the classroom and they found some seats.

"Why did you have to go to so many schools?" Sookie questioned.

"I got kicked out of them all." Lorelai looked over at Sookie seeing no judgement in her expression whatsoever so she went on, feeling like she was someone she could tell anything to. "I hated going to those kinds of schools so much that I just wanted to do anything to keep me out of them, so I would get in trouble. I thought after getting kicked out of one my parents would get the hint that that wasn't where I wanted to be but I guess they are a bit slowly at getting the message than I thought."

"It all worked out though, you are here now."

"Yeah, I am here now." Lorelai said and smiled, she looked over at the desk next to her just as Luke sat down then the bell rang. "Hey, you made it before class started." She joked and he just stared at her a second before looking away and opening his notebook, Lorelai leaned over to Sookie and whispered. "Does he speak?"

"Rarely, but I guess that is part of his charm."

"That isn't charm, that is just rude." Lorelai said then settled into her seat while class started.

Later in the locker room Lorelai pulled her gym shirt over her head, looking over at her reflection in the mirror she couldn't help but smile thinking of how much Emily would hate this outfit, a pair of red shorts and a grey tee shirt that read 'Stars Hollow High Athletics' in big red letters. Her last class had been Chemisty, with no familiar faces she laid low and spent her time dreading this class. She hated gym with a strong passion, she hated that physically activity had to even be a part of any school. But at least after this class she had lunch to look forward to, it was like a reward for having to run around for forty minutes straight.

She walked out of the locker rooms and into the gym, looking around she wasn't really sure on where to go. Excited to see a place to sit she walked over and sat on a set of bleachers behind a group of girls.

"Oh my god, he is so cute." One of the girls said.

"And so strong." Another girl said and Lorelai looked at the group in front of her who seemed to be admiring one of the guys, she looked over at who they had their eyes locked on and noticed that it was the guy from a couple of her first classes today, Luke. He was standing on one end of the gym with another kid right next to him, both of them ready to race. A kid standing near them said go waving his hand down like a flag and they starting running across the gym, in a matter of seconds Luke was at the other end winning the other kid by a long shot.

"Woah." Lorelai said looking at Luke who didn't even seem out of breathe. "He is fast." She said then all the girls in front of her turned around and looked at her.

"He's on the track team, last year he was the only freshman to go with them to state." A girl explained.

"No one ever beats him in a race, he is the fastest kid in the whole school."

"And he looks the best while running too." Another girl chimed in and they all giggled.

"He doesn't even talk though." Lorelai pointed out which only got her disapproving looks from them, it was like hanging out with her mother she thought.

"That's what makes him so dreamy! The way he is so serious, so quiet." The girl said in a way you could literally hear her heart flutter, Lorelai half expected her to start drooling.

"I don't see how that is dreamy, it just seems like a jerk move to ignore everyone. Sure he is attractive, but that doesn't give him the right to be rude to people."

"He isn't rude, he just doesn't like talking much."

"I heard him talking to a teacher once and his voice is so sexy." A girl said then Lorelai rolled her eyes and moved down the bleachers away from the girls before she had to listen to them any longer.

"Trying to get away from the Luke Danes fan club?" The boy next to her asked.

Lorelai chuckled. "Ha, yeah."

"You are the new girl right?" He asked pointing at her.

"Yup, I'm Lorelai."

"Jackson, nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

"Can I ask you a bit of a strange question?" Jackson said unsurely.

"You aren't going to hit on me are you? Because I have had enough of that already today."

He laughed then shook his head. "No."

"Then shoot."

"You were hanging out with Sookie earlier, right?"

"Yeah." She nodded.

"I was wondering if you knew if she was seeing anybody?"

"I'm not really sure, I just met her today." Lorelai said, Jackson looked disappointed she didn't know the answer. "But when I figure it out I will let you know."

"Thank you." He smiled. "Just don't let her know I asked, please."

"I won't." She said then the gym teacher came in and began class. It really hadn't been as bad as she thought it was going to be, after warm ups they got to play volley ball. Aside from getting hit in the head a couple times it didn't involve too much movement which she was always a fan of. And the class only ended up being about thirty minutes long because they gave them a good amount of time afterwards to get dressed and cleaned up.

She found her way to the lunchroom pretty easily which always seemed to be a talent of hers at all the new schools she went to, there was something about the smell of cheeseburgers to help her find her way around. Now the tough part, finding a place to sit in the cafeteria.

"First days are always the hardest to find a seat," Sookie said walking up beside her. "I have been here over a year and I still have trouble finding a spot."

Lorelai looked around noticing no free tables. "All the tables are so full, usually there is an empty one I can sit at."

"We could sit with Luke," Sookie said pointing towards him. "His table is empty."

"If he will let us." Lorelai said then they walked over to his table, she looked down at him and smiled politely. "Mind if we sit? Because we really aren't interested in hearing about the best fashion trends for fall or who's taking who to prom this year." She said then he nodded yes letting them both take a seat. "I'm Lorelai, and this is Sookie."

He looked over at them for the first time. "Luke."

"Ahh, he speaks!" Lorelai joked, he gave her a scowl that slowly turned into a small smirk as he looked at her more. "Is it okay that we took some of your table here?"

"Yeah, it's fine. I really only need the one chair."

"Oh look, a full sentence." She said sarcastically.

"On another thought, maybe I do need those chairs." Luke said then Lorelai smiled at him and ate a fry before glancing over at his tray.

"What in god's name are you eating?"

Luke scrunched his eyes unsure what she was getting at. "A salad?"

"Why?"

"The food at this school is garbage, that cheeseburger you are eating is about fifteen percent beef and eighty-five percent of whatever they could scrap of the grill from the day before." He said then Sookie set her cheeseburger down back on her tray. "And French fries take something that is healthy like a potato and shoves it completely full of grease and fat, it's like eating your own death."

"Yes, but death never tasted so crispy before." Lorelai said taking another bite of her fry.

He continued to rant. "And don't even get me started on the fruit choices here, you can pick between peaches loaded up with syrup or pears that are also loaded up with syrup."

"Remember when you didn't talk?" Lorelai asked then Luke rolled his eyes and went back to eating his salad. "So Sookie." She said turning toward her. "I forgot I was gonna ask if you had a boyfriend?"

"No, I don't."

Lorelai grabbed another fry taking a bite then nonchalantly asked, "Is there anyone you like?"

Sookie ran her finger in circles on the table nervously. "Well there is this one guy I met last year that always carried my books around and put my sleeve out when it caught on fire in cooking class once."

"What's his name?"

"Jackson." Her face lite up just saying his name.

"The farmer?" Luke asked.

"Shush, you." Lorelai said waving at him. "Go back to eating your salad."

"Yes, I always thought he was really sweet and really cute."

Lorelai smiled. "Ahh, good to know."

"Why is that good to know?" Sookie asked.

"No reason, just wondering... " She said then turned back to Luke. "What about you Butch, got your eye on any of the ladies here?"

"Have you seen this town? It is full of whack jobs." He said and nodded towards a table of girls staring over at him.

Lorelai looked over at all their doughy eyes and laughed. "Good point, but don't guys usually like when girls fawn all over them?"

"Not me." He shook his head. "I like a girl who is strong and isn't consistently saying just what they think you want them to say, they need to have a mind of their own."

"But you have girls swooning for you, you must be tempted to be with them sometimes, little kissy kissy, little touchy touchy." She said raising her eyebrows at him a few times.

"Geez." He blushed making Lorelai smile.

"You are a guy, you have hormones."

"There is nothing appealing about hooking up with some chick I don't even like, it wouldn't be right to lead someone on like that no matter how insane they are."

"If your adoring fans knew what a softie you were they would go wild."

His tone turned defensive. "I'm not a softie."

"Oh, I didn't mean it in a bad way." Lorelai defended. "I think it's sweet that you are."

"I'm not."

"Okay, you aren't." She said then ate a few bites of her food.

"How about you Lorelai, got any boys on your mind?" Sookie asked, Luke looked up from his plate waiting for an answer.

"No, all the guys from my old school were too preppy and very full of themselves, and all the guys here just look at me like a shiny new toy which I don't like either."

"Well it's not like we will find our soulmates in high school anyways." Sookie said then Luke stood up.

"You done eating, Luke?" Sookie asked.

"Yeah, I gotta go get some stuff from my locker for my next few classes."

"Well don't be a stranger." Lorelai said.

"I won't, and I will see you in Geometry, Sookie."

"You will see both of us, we are heading there after French class." Sookie said.

"Auf Wiedersehen, Luke." Lorelai said and they both looked at her oddly.

"That's German," Luke said while grabbing his tray. "Not French."

"Guess it's a good thing I'm going to French class later." She said as Luke walked away.

"That took a different turn than I expected." Sookie said surprised.

"What?"

"Luke." She said with a laugh. "I didn't even know he was capable of saying more than a monosyllable."

"So he really never talks to anyone?"

"I have never seen him do it before, he usually just keeps to himself."

"I wonder why he talked to us then." Lorelai said and Sookie shrugged.

Lorelai and Sookie sat though French class and she even managed to memorize a few of the phases despite never being good with foreign languages, afterwards they went to Geometry class. Luke ended up sitting next to them again and she kept looking over thinking about how much her opinion of him had changed since she first saw him this morning. She had him pegged as the school jerk who didn't care about anyone else but after lunch she was starting to think maybe he was closed off for a reason and once you got to know him he could be a pretty decent guy. Another part of her wondered if her self destructive side was starting to kick in and make her think too highly of this mysterious boy she just meet, either way she knew she wanted to get to know him better.

"Lorelai." Sookie whispered.

She broke out of her trance and looked over at her. "Yeah, Sookie?"

"You're not taking notes."

"Oh." Lorelai said looking at the board, the teacher had filled the thing up with equations and she hadn't even noticed. "I zoned out a bit, was thinking about something."

"Ah ha, something." Sookie smiled looking at Luke. "I'll copy my notes and get them to you tomorrow."

"Thank you, Sookie." Lorelai smiled then they heard the bell ring.

"Alright class, have the chapter five assignment finished and on my desk tomorrow before class starts." The teacher said then she looked towards Lorelai. "And Lorelai since this is your first day you are excused from it, just be sure to study it more before our test next week."

"Thank you, I will." Lorelai said then she grabbed her stuff and starting walking out of the classroom with Sookie and Luke. "I can't believe she isn't making me do the homework, at my other schools they would have made me do it and catch up on anything they already did all in one night."

"They aren't too strict about homework, if we do well in classes and on tests they won't even make us do it sometimes." Sookie said as they reached the hallways.

"Lucky."

"Well you go here too now so you are just as lucky."

She smiled. "You've got a point there, I am pretty lucky to go here."

"Wait till you've been here longer, you might change your mind." Luke said and Sookie swatted his arm.

"This school is great, even better now that you are here." Sookie said bumping her shoulder into Lorelai's.

She bumped back into her and smiled. "Thank you Sookie, you make this school pretty great too."

"I gotta get to my next class so I probably won't see you again till tomorrow."

"Well thanks for making my first day a whole lot easier, I don't know what I would have done without you." Lorelai said and they pulled each other into a sweet, short hug.

"You probably still would have been wandering around the halls looking for Mister Leroy's class."

Lorelai chuckles. "Chances are pretty high that is what I would be doing, but really, thank you Sookie."

"My pleasure and feel free to let me make your second day even easier tomorrow."

"I will." Lorelai waved her goodbye. "See you tomorrow, Sookie."

"Bye, Lorelai. Bye, Luke." She said as she walked away.

"Bye." Luke said then he opened his notebook and wrote something in it.

Lorelai looked over at him as he closed up his notebook. "Whatcha writing?"

"I forgot to write the assignment down, I usually do it right after I leave class."

"You are quite the note taker."

"I write down everything we learn so if I don't understand it the first time around I can just go back and figure it out myself later instead of asking the teacher to help."

"Oh, because asking the teacher would involve talking to them which you don't like doing."

"Exactly." Luke nodded. "So what class do you have next?"

"Home Ec."

"Yeah, me too. Do you know where the classroom is?"

"I have no clue, I know it's in room fourteen C which is either near the gym or it's on the moon."

"It's no where near either but I can show you to it."

"Okay, thank you." She smiled. "Let me get some stuff from my locker first before we go." She headed to her locker and put in the combo, when she tried to pull it open it was stuck shut again. "This locker is so frustrating, it has been sticking all day." She said while throwing a fit trying to get into it.

"Let me help, stand back." He said, Lorelai took a few steps back then he punched the locker from the side and it flew open.

"Nice job, Fonzie." She went into her locker and started sorting out what she needed.

"Sometimes the locks don't fully unhook completely on these old lockers so you just have to give it a little punch."

"Thank you." She said grabbing out her books and closing the locker, she put her hand up guesting for him to walk. "Lead the way."

When they get to the classroom Luke takes one of the few seats left that's towards the front of class while Lorelai walks up to the teacher.

"I'm the new kid, Lorelai Gilmore. The note on my schedule said to come to you in the beginning of class to get a group number."

"Oh, yes. Miss Gilmore, it is nice to meet you." She held her hand out.

Lorelai smiled and shook her hand. "It's nice you meet you too."

"I'm sorry, I completely forgot I had to get you a group." She said and starting walking toward her desk. "Let me just grab my chart and see which group has room for you."

"She can be in my group." Luke said quickly before she had a chance to check, they both looked over at him. Lorelai noticed the teacher's expression, it was like she had never heard him say a word before. "We only have three people."

"Thank you, mister Danes for the very kind offer. Miss Gilmore, you can be with Luke's group."

Lorelai smiled taking a seat next to Luke, she leaned over and whispered. "I think you almost made her pass out when you spoke up."

"I thought I should save her the time of finding you a group when I already knew this was the only one that didn't have four people already."

"How very thoughtful of you." She smirked then looked across the room at the kitchen area. "So this class is like making food, right? Because I am starving."

"Cooking is just part of this class, we aren't doing that today."

"I'll have to remember to pack snacks tomorrow, I thought we would be getting food."

"We had lunch two hours ago."

"I had lunch, you ate part of a tree." Lorelai said and he exhaled. "If we aren't cooking then what are we doing?"

"We are sewing quilted pillow cases, we have been working on them a couple days already so it might take awhile for you to catch up but I can help you if you want."

"Yeah, could you explain to me what to do then I can work from there."

"Follow me." He stood up leading her towards shelves with bins full of fabric, he grabbed a tray and handed it to her. "The tray is the same size as the pillow cases so you grab pieces of fabric and set them on it to get an idea of the pattern you want, make sure you grab two of each fabric if you want to have one for the front and one for the back otherwise you can use one solid colored piece for the back."

"Seems easy enough." Lorelai said grabbing pieces of fabric out, within a minute she already had a pattern picked out and lying on her tray.

"How did you do that?"

She looked over at him in wonder. "What?"

"Create a pattern so quickly, it took me twenty minutes to come up with mine and it's not even half as nice as yours."

"I don't know, I just put what I thought would look creative and voila!" She said gesturing at her project. "So, am I ahead of the rest of the class yet?"

He shook his head. "Not even close."

"Well I will by the end of class."

"You know you have to sew it by hand, right? There is no way you can catch up by the end of class."

She gave him a cocky grin. "Don't underestimate how competitive I can be."

By the end of class Lorelai was not only caught up to everyone else but she is ahead of them, the teacher had told them to start cleaning up their projects and Luke looked over at Lorelai's pillow case running his hand along the stitching.

"How did you get the stitching so neat?"

"I just followed this little guide paper they gave us." Lorelai said holding up the sheet of paper they all had been given.

"Your's is way too good, you must have sewed before."

"No, first time." She said picking up her tray and carrying it to the shelves along with Luke. "I really like it though, I never thought I would like something that you do in home ec."

"Not a big fan of home ec?" He said while putting his tray on their groups shelve, she did the same before they starting walking out of the classroom.

"Not the finances part or the cooking part since the only thing I can do in the kitchen is put a pop tart in the toaster, even those I burnt them for the first few weeks till my friend set my toaster controls for me." She reaches her locker then stops. "So I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah." Luke said with a small smile. "See you tomorrow, Lorelai."

"Au Revoir, Luke."

"You learned a French goodbye."

"Thought I had to if I didn't want to get teased by you again."

"Au Revoir, Lorelai." He said then walked away, once she turned facing her locker she smiled.

She gathered up all the books and notebooks she would be needing tonight and shoved them into her backpack, she zipped it up and slung it over her shoulder before heading out of the school. Once she was outside she looked at the one car sitting in front of the school, her mom's car.

"Here we go." She said to herself then walked over and climbed into the passenger seat, she hooked her seatbelt and her mom took off.

"How was your first day?" Emily asked, glancing over whenever she got the chance.

"Good." Lorelai gave the generic answer, hoping that would be the last of this conversion.

"You didn't get into any trouble?"

"I only egged the principles car, lit off stink bombs in the bathroom and threw microscopes off the building's roof, but other than that I was very well behaved." She said sarcastically.

"It's not a crazy question to ask given your past experiences."

"I didn't get into any trouble, mom."

"Well that's good, these public schools are filled with all kinds of kids that are always wanting to cause some type of trouble."

"Yes, opposed to the private schools where kids only gamble with their parents cash and crash their fancy cars an hour after getting them on their sixteenth birthday." Lorelai said and Emily chose to ignore her comment.

"Did you meet any new friends today?"

She put on a smile and nodded. "The guy that sold me pot under the bleachers was pretty swell."

"Lorelai!" Emily said in a exasperated tone.

"Yes, I meet a couple new friends."

"Well tell me about them."

"They are students there."

"I assumed they weren't janitors."

"I don't know how to explain them." Lorelai said and paused. "They are nice."

"What's their names?"

"You need them for your blacklist?"

"I just wondering what your new friends names are."

"Their names are Sookie and Luke."

"And this Sookie and Luke, they are a couple?"

"No, they basically just became friends today."

"Does your friend Sookie like him?"

"As a friend she does, but she likes this other guy I met briefly today."

"Ah huh." She nodded. "What is this Luke like?"

"Why are you asking so many questions?"

"I would like to know about your new friends, you are going to be seeing them for the next three years."

"So you can judge them."

"Is it so bad that I would like to know how my daughter's first day went and what her new friends are like?"

Lorelai gave in knowing there was no way to end this without giving her some information. "He's nice, really quiet most the time but he's very helpful."

"He's helpful?"

"He showed me how to open my locker when it sticks and showed me how to get started on the pillow case I am making in class. Sookie is really helpful too, she was pretty much my tour guide around the school today."

"I'm glad you made some new friends."

"Really?" Lorelai asked.

"Yes, if you have to go to that dreadful school you might as well have some friends to make it easier to handle." She said then Lorelai exhales before turning the radio up, Emily shot a disapproving look at her and she turns it down a bit.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you all for the wonderful reviews, it meant a lot to me to hear your feedback. And some answers to the comments, I feel like Stars Hollow was already supposed to be such a small town during the running of the show so taking it back to 1983 it was probably even less developed making the school's population low. I'm not entirely sure if it would be more or less than a private school but I went with less. And to the people wondering about the rest of the towns peoples, one familiar face does show up in this chapter and the following chapter may or may not include a town event in it. I've give you a hint, it does. So look forward to meeting all the characters at some point or another. Let me know what you think of Lorelai's second day, and please enjoy!

Luke leaned up against Lorelai's locker, a blue pen twirling between his fingers. He would glance up every so often to see if she was coming towards him yet but still there was no sign of her, every time he caught the eye of his fellow female students and they would smile at him before he quickly looked back down at the pen in his hand. It was Lorelai's pen, the girl that had started at his school just yesterday and had already made an impression on him. After English class he had noticed her pen still lying on her desk and grabbed it to return to her later. He didn't think she needed this particular pen for any reason, hell she probably had twenty of the same ones but it was an excuse to walk with her to gym. The halls started be become emptier giving him the hint that he already missed her, he stood up straight and went to walk towards the gym when he saw a confrontation near the freshman classrooms. A taller boy grabbed on the shirt of a somewhat shorter, smaller boy and pulled him backwards. Luke focused more on what was going on then he saw the kid slam his body into a set of lockers next to them, within seconds he ran down the hallway and was next to them.

"Stop it." The boy pleaded, struggling to get out of his grip while being pushed him harder into the locker. "Leave me alone."

Luke clung his hand to the larger boys shoulder turning him around and pinning him up against the locker. "What the hell do you think you are doing?"

"Luke, I'm Billy." Luke's tone scared the boy, you could see it in his expression and the way he shuddered as he talked. "I'm on the track team with you, freshman string though so you might not have seen me."

"I didn't ask you who you were or for your resume, I asked you what you were doing to this kid?"

"I was just messing around Luke, all fun and games."

"It didn't look like messing around to me." Luke looked over at the smaller boy. "Was it all fun and games for you kid?" He asked, the boy shook his head no. "I didn't think so." Luke turned back to the bully tightening his grip and presses him tighten into the lockers making him yelp out in pain. "Now if I see you messing with him or any other kid for that matter I will show you what my idea of fun and games is, okay?"

The boy shook his head rapidly. "Okay."

"Good, and tell that message to anyone else who thinks about bothering him." Luke said then shoved him aside before turning and walking away. After a few seconds he heard footsteps, looking behind him he saw the smaller boy.

"Thank you." The boy said.

"No problem, he shouldn't be giving you anymore trouble." Luke continued walking away but the boy still followed closely, he turned around giving him another look.

He shoved his index finger to his chest and smiled. "I'm Kirk."

"Luke." He said drying, they stood in silence several moments. "I have to get to class."

"Yeah, me too." Kirk said, Luke leered at him and turned around walking away.

Inside the gymnasium Lorelai walked over to the bleachers and took a seat next to the familiar face she had met briefly yesterday. "Hey Jackson."

"Hi Lorelai." He smiled kindly and she could tell he was waiting patiently for an answer to his question.

"She's not seeing anyone." Lorelai said with a smirk.

His face lite up. "Really?"

"Yes." Lorelai nodded. "And I get the feeling she is looking for someone just like you."

"What makes you think that?" He asked.

Lorelai smiled thinking back to her conversion with Sookie. "Just a feeling."

"Do you think I should ask her out?"

"That's for you to determine but I think it would be a good idea."

His face immediately filled with panic. "Ask Sookie out, how am I supposed to ask her out? I can't even talk right when we study together, how will I be on a date with her?" Lorelai went to answer but he kept going. "I'll be a mess, what if I can't think of anything to say and we sit awkwardly the whole time? She'll tell everyone about the awful date she had with me and I'll be the laughing stock of the whole school."

Lorelai patted her hand on his shoulder getting his attention. "Jackson, calm down." He finally took a moment to breathe then looked over at her. "Take some time to think about how to ask her out, come up with some conversion topics for your date and get some dark clothing to wear so she doesn't see you sweating profusely."

"Okay, I can do that." Jackson nodded. "Thank you, Lorelai."

"You can thank me now but if you hurt her in anyway just know that my family has enough money to pay off a really good hitman."

"I would never hurt her, if anything she will be the one doing all the hurting."

"Sookie's sweet, if she hurts you it will be physically and completely by accident."

He chuckled. "Oh, I was in home ec. with her last year so I know."

Lorelai smiled, glancing over she noticed Luke walking into the gymnasium. Kirk had ended up following Luke the whole way till he was able to escape into the gym closing the door behind him, he walked past the teacher and he shouted to him.

"You are very late, mister Danes." Luke ignored him continuing to walk towards the locker rooms, he heard a voice from the bleachers and looked over.

"You should really get a watch, mister Danes." Lorelai teased, he smiled as he walked past. Within seconds a group of girls popped up next to Lorelai making her jump. "Woah." She realized a few of the girls from gym class yesterday, the Luke Danes fan club as Jackson called them.

"Did you see him smile at you?!" One girl asked.

"Ah, yeah." She answered awkwardly, she looked over at Jackson who was trying his best to hold back a laugh.

He smiled standing up. "Have fun." He said walking away from the group of fangirls, leaving Lorelai to fend for herself.

"I would kill to have Luke Danes smile at her." Another girl said. Lorelai stared at her a little creeped out, she felt like if he did smile at her she would be the type of person to hold up her end of the deal.

"It's not the first time he has smiled at me." Lorelai said, she earned a collective "What?!" from all the girls.

"Aren't you one of the girls that sat at his lunch table yesterday?" One pointed out.

"And the one he invited into his group in home ec.?" Another girl asked.

Lorelai peered around the room. "Gee, this school have cameras following me around all day?"

"How did you get him to do that?" She asked.

"I don't know, I guess I'm his friend and friends do that." Lorelai said, all the girls gasped like they had heard something astonishing.

"You are Luke Danes' friend?"

Lorelai nodded. "Yes."

"How did you get Luke Danes to be your friend?"

"Well I started by calling him just by his first name." Lorelai teased.

"First name, okay. How else?" She saw all the girls make a mental note of it, she stood up from the bleachers. "You know, I should probably go stretch before laps. I'll see you all later." She hopped down quickly almost tumbling to the ground to get away as Luke walked by and caught her.

"Now I'm used to girls at this school throwing themselves at me but I didn't think anyone took it this literally." Luke said helping her get her balance back before letting go of her.

"Hi Luke, hi Luke!" Multiply girls sitting on the bleacher said, he looked over at them oddly then back at Lorelai.

"What the hell was that about?" Luke asked.

"They asked how I became Luke Danes' friend and I said by just using your first name."

He smiled cocky. "You are so sure that we are friends?"

"If you were any other person on this planet I would think that you were just being nice but since you are a hermit who does not say a word to anyone ever then I am assuming if you have conversions with me that includes full sentences that maybe just maybe it's because we are friends." She stood there silent then looked over at him. "We are, right?"

"Maybe, just maybe we are." He teased.

"And Sookie is your friend too?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Sookie gets an of course, and I get a maybe?" Lorelai asked, jokily offended.

"Sookie didn't tease my salad."

"What fifthteen year old boy eats a salad?"

"One that would like to live past fifty."

"You're one of those people who eat oatmeal for breakfast, aren't you?"

He shrugged. "If you add cinnamon it's not half bad."

Lorelai scrunched up her face. "Yuck."

"It's good for you, if you don't fill your body with grease and sugar you could actually get used to it."

"I'd rather not."

"Suit yourself."

Lorelai looked over at him with wonder. "What made you such a health freak? Most parents have to bribe their kids to eat vegetables."

"I like to be healthy, does there have to be a reason for that?" Luke said, getting slightly defensive.

"I guess not, it just seems out of the ordinary."

"I've never been one for being ordinary."

"Me neither." Lorelai smiled. "We have that in common, me and you."

"Everyone on the line!" The gym teacher shouted, the both of them walked to the line. "Back and forth till the second whistle."

"I'll give you a head start." Luke said smiling, the whistle blew and the whole class started running from side to side in the gym. Luke let her start first but quickly caught up to her passing right by her, Lorelai impulsively reached out grabbing him by the back of the shirt and pulled him onto the ground. Her plan backfired when she tripped over him and caused a student pile up on the gym floor, she gripped her knee that seemed to take the grunt of the fall.

"Miss Gilmore." Lorelai saw the teachers disapproving glare and stood up quickly, she walked over to him and Luke got up and followed behind. "What was that about?"

"I'm sorry, I fell." Lorelai said, hoping this teacher hadn't heard too much about her reputation.

He looked at her is disbelief. "You fell?"

"It's true." Luke said stepping in. "She was falling and she grabbed me, I lost my balance and stumbled."

"I did not mean to take everyone down with me, I really am sorry and I'll apologize to anyone who took a fall too." Lorelai said and the teacher nodded.

"Go to the nurse first, you can apologize later." He said and Luke looked at Lorelai seeing the blood that ran down from the injury on her knee.

"You're bleeding." Luke said.

Lorelai held up her bloody hand that had been clutching her knee before. "I know."

"Does it hurt bad?"

"It stings a lot and it's pretty hard to walk on." She said and looked at the teacher. "Where is the nurse's office at?

"Mister Danes, why don't you help her to the nurse."

"Of course." Luke nodded and grabbed Lorelai's arm wrapping it around his shoulder. "You ready."

Lorelai looked over at him and smiled. "I'm ready." She said then they started walking, he kept the pace slow so she could step lightly. "Thank you for covering for me, I don't think he was gonna believe me till you spoke up."

"Even though it was no accident I figured you didn't mean to take us all out."

"Well I told you I was competitive." Lorelai said with a laugh.

"I'll remember that from now on." Luke said as they reached the nurse's office, he opened the door and helped her inside.

"What happened here?" The nurse asked getting up from her chair.

"I took a fall in gym class, nothing too bad but there's quite a bit of blood."

"I can get it cleaned up for you, why don't you take a seat on one of the beds and I'll be right there."

"Okay." Lorelai said and Luke helped her onto one of the beds, once he had her lowered down he took a seat on the bed next to her. "Now be honest with me," She said, Luke turned and looked at her. "Is this the quickest you have gotten a girl into bed with you?"

"Geez." Luke blushed. "I thought you were going to ask me something serious."

Lorelai laughed. "I was serious! You have gotta a girl into bed, haven't you?"

"The only time I shared a bed with a girl was my sister, I was eight years old."

"More of a back seat of your dad's car kinda guy." Lorelai said with a smirk.

"My dad has a truck, there is no back seat."

"I will get you to share some personal details with me at some point, you know that, right?"

"Don't count on it." Luke said as the nurse walked in with both hands full of supplies.

"I'm gonna give your leg a look then I'll get you all cleaned up." The nurse said pushing a chair up next to Lorelai, she looked at her knee being careful not to bump it too hard while she wiped the blood away. "Your class just started?"

"Yeah, we were doing warm ups when I fell."

"I don't want you doing anymore running on this knee today, it will only make it sorer. I'm gonna have you stay here till the bell rings to ice it, you won't have any use going back to gym class anyways."

Lorelai grinned. "Alright, that sounds good."

"You are excited you don't have to do anymore laps." Luke said.

"Hey, silver lining baby. Every downfall has it's perks." Lorelai said then winced when the nurse poured alcohol on the wound, Luke smiled. "Still better than running laps."

"Your friend can head back to class, let your teacher know she won't be back till tomorrow."

"Got it." Luke said, he stood up and glanced at Lorelai. "You need me to come back after class and help you to the cafeteria?"

"I can help her to it." A voice from another bed said, a privacy curtain was pulled aside and they all looked over and saw Sookie lying down holding one of her hands in the air. "And nurse Jeanie lets us walk early to get there in time.

"Sookie! What are you doing here?" Lorelai asked.

"I was in chemistry and I had a bit of a mishap with a broken beaker, cut my hand."

"Why was there a broken beaker in class?"

"Well I broke it, they make those things so slippery these days."

"Okay, I see you are in good hands- hand." Luke said noticing Sookie pulling the bandage off her hand making a face at the blood. "So I'm gonna go."

Lorelai laughed. "See you at lunch."

"See you at lunch Luke, we'll save your table for ya." Sookie said.

"Just make it there in one piece and I'll be happy." Luke said and left the room.

"That your boyfriend?" The nurse asked.

"No, um." Lorelai could feel her cheeks warm up, Sookie smiled at the accusation. "We meet yesterday, I'm new here."

"Oh, sorry. You two seemed like you had known each other a long time." She wrapped her knee then hooked it shut with tape. "That's good that you were able to make some friends already, a few good friends can help a lot when starting out somewhere new."

"They really can and I think I found some pretty awesome ones already." Lorelai smiled at Sookie.

"Alright, you are all wrapped up." The nurse handed Lorelai an ice pack. "Keep this on it and yell if you need anything."

"Thank you." Lorelai said then the nurse stood up and walked out of the room, she set the ice pack on her knee and sat back on the bed. Looking over she saw Sookie smiling widely at her, she shrugged her shoulders and asked, "What?"

"She thought you and Luke were a couple."

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "She's obviously taking someone's meditation out of the cupboard for her own personal stash."

"I would have thought it too, the way he was carrying you in here."

"He was just helping me walk, you're making it sound like a scene from An Officer and a Gentleman."

Sookie put her hand on her heart. "And that banter you two had going before the nurse came in."

"What is it with this school and it's need to spy on people?" Lorelai said defensively. "You can't do anything without hearing about it later."

"I'm sorry, it's dropped."

"Thank you."

Sookie sat staring at the ceiling for a moment then turned back towards Lorelai. "You would make a really cute couple though-"

Lorelai cut her off. "Sookie!"

"Dropping it."

Lorelai looked at Sookie and shook her head trying to hold back a smile. "Now I am expecting you to carry me though."

Sookie laughed. "Luke said to come back in one piece, we will never be able to leave this office again if we try that."

"You've got a point, we can try going three legged race style. You think the nurse has some rope?"

"I was in a three legged race once at one of my family reunions, I wouldn't advise it."

Lorelai chuckled. "How did that end?"

"It's better you don't know, but my cousin still won't talk to me."

About ten minutes before the bell was gonna ring the nurse let Lorelai and Sookie start walking to lunch, she assumed if Sookie was the one helping her they should take there time so there wasn't any other incidents. After getting their trays of food they both sat down at the table they had pegged as Luke's super secret no people allowed table, not a very catchy name but they were both still a little loopy from the blood loss.

"Man, I am starving." Lorelai said ripping into a small bag of cheetos. "All that limping is quite the workout."

"I know that workout well, it can be exhausting." Sookie took a sip of her milk while Luke pulled out a chair across from them and took a seat.

"I heard there was a bloody bandage in the with the milk cartons, either of you got any idea how that happened?" Luke asked.

Sookie set down the milk in her hand and looked at her now uncovered injury. "I haven't a clue."

Lorelai smiled, glancing behind Luke she saw a boy standing there staring down at Luke. "Hey Luke, you've got a groupie." She said nodding towards him.

Luke looked behind him then took a deep breathe at the face he saw. "You can sit down if you want, Kirk." He said dryly then Kirk smiled sitting down right next to Luke, Luke immediately scooted his chair away from him a bit.

"Who's your new friend?" Lorelai asked.

"This is Kirk." Luke said, gesturing towards the giddy boy sitting beside him.

Kirk chimed in quickly, excited to talk to them. "Luke saved my life today."

Luke exasperated, "I did not save your life today, I stopped some jerk from slamming you into a locker."

"You helped him when he was being bullied?" Sookie asked sweetly.

"This is so adorable, I can't believe you did that." Lorelai said, Luke stared down at his plate not saying a word.

"Who knew that Luke Danes would help me, of all people. It's such a great start to our friendship, isn't it Luke?" Kirk said putting his arm around him.

"Don't touch me." Luke hissed, Kirk arm pulled away from him like lighting.

Lorelai smiled at him. "Look at you, you are like some cheesy comic book hero. Now we just have to figure out which superhero costume would look best on you." She asked while Luke shoved his face into his palms. "Aquaman?"

"The Falcon?" Sookie suggested.

"Oh, I know." Lorelai said. "Wonder Women."

Luke pulled his hands from his face. "Are you two having fun?"

The both of them chuckled and Lorelai said, "Yes, very much."

"I'd picture you in more of a Captain America." Kirk said to Luke, Luke just looked at him with grimace.

"Do me a favor, don't picture me in anything, Kirk."

Lorelai giggled. "Dirty!"

"Geez, you know what I meant." Luke defended.

"So Kirk, are you new here?" Sookie asked.

"I've been going here a month, I'm a freshman this year."

"Oh sorry, I hadn't seen you here before so I just assumed."

"I get that a lot." Kirk said then tried opening him milk, when he continued to struggle with it Luke reached over and opened it for him. "Thanks, buddy." Luke groaned. "I'm not used to eating in the cafeteria, Billy and his friends always made me go to there next class to keep their seats warm. I could have never had milk then, it would have spilled too much when I was rotating chairs."

"They forced you to do that?" Lorelai asked in disgust.

"Yeah, but they gave me an apple as long as I didn't drip the juice on their desks. Once I got Billy's desk sticky and they didn't let me eat the rest of the week."

She glanced around the room at the tables of people in the cafeteria. "Where are these punks at? I gonna give them a piece of my mind."

Kirk pointed at a table full of dumb looking jocks. "Billy's the one in the green sweatshirt."

"Oh, he is gonna be sorry he ever messed with you." Lorelai stood up while unbuttoning the top buttons on her blouse.

Luke stared at her a moment as she made her chest more exposed, when she was finished his eyes went back up to her face. "What are you doing?"

Lorelai smiled. "Watch and learn, my friend." She said before walking towards the table of bozos.

He watched in amazement as she went right up to Billy putting her hand on his shoulder and leaning down in front of him, he watched when she brought her lips near his ear and began to whisper something. "What is she doing?" He asked and they both shrugged.

Lorelai stood up straight having been done with whatever she had to say then she smiled and walked back to her table leaving Billy with his jaw dropped. "This should be fun." She said noticing he already got off his chair and rushed out of the cafeteria.

"What did you say to him?" Luke asked as she took a seat, re-buttoning her blouse.

She smirked evilly. "Well I may have told him to go to mens locker room, strip completely naked and wait for me there."

"Why would you tell him that?"

"Oh god." Sookie said placing her hand over her mouth.

"What? What are you not telling me?" Luke asked getting frustrated to why Lorelai would even offer that.

"Because while we were in the nurse's office we overheard that a group of seniors would be twenty minutes late for their gym class since they were gonna be helping hang banners." Lorelai took a look at the clock. "Which puts their arrival about two minutes from now.. What do you think Sookie, will he have his whitey tighties off by the time they get there?"

"He seemed pretty eager, I wouldn't be surprised if he is oiled up with candles around him." She said and they both laughed.

Luke finally caught onto what she had done and smirked. "You are an evil genius."

"I believe I've been called that before." She said raising her eyebrows.

"You guys are amazing, I never had anyone stand up for me that way." Kirk said.

"No one ever tried to stop them from bullying you?" Sookie asked.

"My brother pushed Billy aside one time and told him to knock it off."

"See you had someone to stand up for you."

"Well Billy was beating me up in front of his locker and he had to get into it, after we were out of the way he didn't care."

"That's awful." Lorelai said. "Is there anything else we can do to help?"

"My little sister keeps going into my backpack and stealing my pudding cup, can you talk to her too?"

"That seems more like a family matter." Lorelai said and he sighed. "But hey, you can have my pudding cup." She said and handed him it across the table, he picked at the lid trying to get it open. "Luke, open it for him."

Luke exhaled then grabbed his pudding cup and opened it. "There you go."

After Luke was finished with his lunch he left the cafeteria early like he always did and started walking the halls towards his locker, he stopped hearing someone walking behind him before turning around.

"Kirk, you can't keep following me everywhere. At some point I'm gonna have to go to the bathroom and I don't want you standing next to me with that goony look on your face."

"I'm not trying to follow you." He motioned to the situation. "Well just there I was trying to following you." He cleared his throat. "Can I get your advice on something.. A girl. You know, friend to friend."

"We are not friends, Kirk."

"My mistake, you're just one of the only people who has ever stood up for me so I thought maybe we were friends." Kirk said then starting walking away.

"Kirk." Luke said and Kirk froze in place. "What's her name?"

Kirk turned around grinning with excitement. "Lulu, she's sweet and funny and really beautiful."

"Then what's stopping you from asking her out?"

"She's dating my brother."

"Ahh." Luke said nodding.

"But he doesn't treat her right, she's so amazing and he doesn't even realize it." Kirk took a deep breathe. "I don't know what to do."

"My advice would be to show her what she's missing, treat her right and show her the respect he's not giving her."

"Won't that take a lot of time to get her to notice me?" Kirk asked.

"It could take years but you never stop letting her know you will always be there for her, if you can make her see you in the way you want her to then it will be worth the wait."

"Thanks, Luke."

"Don't mention it." Kirk smiled then Luke shook his head. "And I mean really don't mention it to everyone or I'll find that punk kid and tell him to kick your ass."

"I won't tell anyone." Kirk said, he walked away heading towards the freshman hallway. Luke waited till he was out of sight, he looked around making sure no one else was around then he sipped into an empty classroom a few doors down from his locker. A few minutes later right after the bell rang he left the classroom at a speed walk and went straight to his locker, Lorelai at the time in the same hallway had noticed him do so and looked at him curiously.

When the last class of the day come along Lorelai walked into her home ec. classroom taking a seat next to Luke.

"Today just keeps getting better and better." She said with a huge grin on her face.

"Why's that?" Luke asked.

"I heard some of the students talking and apparently when the seniors boys got to their locker room Billy was lying out on one of the benches flexing, completely naked."

Luke smirked. "He was flexing?"

"One arm leaning on the bench the other behind his head, I saw him walking in the hallway with his sweatshirt zipped all the way up and he wasn't making eye contact with everybody."

"Good, he deserves to see how it feels when he's the one getting teased."

"You could say he's now the butt of the joke." Lorelai smirked at Luke and he shook his head. "In all seriousness that was sweet of you standing up for Kirk the way you did, it doesn't seem like he has much of a support system."

"Yeah, I'm sure I'll be paying for it for a very long time though." Luke pauses then looks at her. "You said the day keeps on getting better, what else happened today?"

She smiled. "I did a little love connection."

He looked at her oddly. "What's that?"

"It's a game show." Luke still looked unsure. "It came out last month, Chuck Woolery helps singles find a compatible match. How have you not heard of this?"

"I don't watch much television."

She looked at him in offence. "How can you not watch television?"

"Didn't you have some other point to make here?"

"Yes, my point was I played Chuck Woolery today. Not literally because I'm sure they wouldn't be impressed with a fifthteen year old hosting the show.. Although Chuck already blew through two wives so I'm not sure how high their standards are."

Luke cut her off. "Your point?"

"Yesterday Jackson asked me if Sookie was seeing anyone, that's why I was asking her at lunch and after she told me she wasn't I told him about it today. He said once he works up the nerve he is going to ask her out."

"Isn't that a little pathetic?"

"They like each other, they are both really nervous and needed a push."

"What's so scary about asking someone out? You ask and they say yes, you have a date. You ask and they say no, you move on till the next one."

"Have you ever asked anybody out?" She asked.

"I have never had to, they usually ask me."

"Then how can you say it isn't hard to do if you have never done it?"

"It doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to do."

"Okay, picture this." Lorelai said putting her hand on his shoulder. "Imagine there is a girl you really like, she is constantly on your mind and even the thought of her makes you heart skip a beat. Are you imagining it?"

Luke swallows deeply then nods. "I am."

"Now think about going up to her to ask her out, you have your hopes high. When you get next to her she smiles and all a sudden you start thinking about it, what if she says no? All this hope you had is gone and now the only thing you feel is fear, fear that you could lose this person if you try to take it to the next step." Lorelai pauses. "Do you understand how that could be scary?"

"I think I'm starting to get it, that would be terrifying if you really liked the person." Luke said then looked at her hand still on his shoulder. "Lorelai?"

"Yeah? She asked and he opened his mouth the speak but was interrupted by the teacher's voice.

"Good evening, class." She said, walking into the classroom and over to her desk. "Sorry I'm running a little late, a conference ran long." Lorelai dropped her hand and they both turned facing the front of the classroom.

Class went on and both Luke and Lorelai would glance over at each other every so often, after the class was dismissed they left the room and started walking down the hallway.

"Before, in class." Lorelai said, Luke looked over at her. "Before the teacher came in, were you going to ask me something?"

"It was nothing, I was going to talk more about that game show you brought up." He said and stared at the books in his hands.

"Oh." Lorelai said, they continued to walk further. "Can I ask you something?"

He nodded. "Shoot."

"You left lunch early today, and you did yesterday too."

"I leave lunch early everyday."

"It's just.. I saw you leaving a classroom when the bell rang and you looked very secretive."

"I forgot a book in there earlier, I went back to get it."

Lorelai stopped them and pointed at a classroom door. "It was this classroom, I may be pretty new here but I know this is a freshman classroom. How did you leave a book in a class you don't even take?"

"Fine, I didn't leave anything in the classroom." Luke said and started walking again.

"If you don't mind me asking, what were you doing?"

"I do mind you asking."

"Luke." She said and he exhaled.

"It's a long story."

Lorelai grabs his hand and stops him. "Oh my god, are you having an affair with a teacher? Is that why you never seem to have interest in girls your age?"

"Yes, me and mister Cardwell have some pretty steamy moments together after lunch." Luke said putting emphasis on the word mister.

"Okay, so you aren't having an affair. Are you pranking the teacher for some reason, because if you are I can give you some pointers. I'm a master."

Luke stopped at his locker and grabbed his backpack out, he shoved his book in the turned around facing her. "Goodbye, Lorelai." He said with a smirk before turning and leaving.

"See you tomorrow mystery man." She found herself smiling after he walked away, she hadn't figured that boy out yet but something about him intrigued her. If this was what two days at this new school felt like she could only wonder what life would be like at the end of the school year, maybe this was her chance to have something meaningful in her life.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thank you to the reviewers for giving me the energy to update this as quickly as I have been, I wasn't sure I was gonna be able to get this chapter out today but I put some time aside to get it done for all you lovely people. Let me know what you think and please enjoy!

It was the Wednesday of Lorelai's second week at Stars Hollow High, she had already worked up a steady routine. Everyday she would have lunch with her new group of friends, growing into much stronger relationships with them than any students she had meet at her other schools. Sookie and her would gab like best friends throughout the day, Luke and her carried on their usual banter although she hadn't learned anything new or personal about him yet and Kirk was, well Kirk was Kirk which she actually found pretty amusing. The school day was already over and she had stayed after hours to work on a group project with her chemistry class, which ended earlier than planned after one of the members in her group got sick.

Lorelai pulled her sweater over her head and slid her arms in the sleeves as she stepped outside the school into the autumn chill, she walked down the stairs and glanced around at the town. Leaves had taken their fall colors and were starting to land onto the ground, families walked by holding hands and kids played in the square. She smiled at the overwhelming peace she felt anytime she was in this small town, she thought to herself how she could really see herself living in a place like this. A flyer on the bulletin board caught her eye and see walked over to read it, it announced a fall festival being held in the town square this Friday. She would have read more but she heard voices behind the school and decided to see what was going on, as she walked around she saw a track field with a group full of students running around it. She got up closer and noticed one of these students were Luke, in shorts and a tank top.

"Oh my god." She said with a snicker, she stared at him as he ran to the end of the track.

"Alright, you all did great today." The coach said to the group of students gathering around him, Luke stayed back further and crossed his arms as he listened. "I will see everybody same time tomorrow, now go get some rest." He said dismissing them, Luke walked off the track and noticed Lorelai standing by with a giant smile on her face.

"Please tell me you have pictures of yourself in these shorts, I would like to frame them and hang them over the mantle." Lorelai joked.

He grabbed his duffle bag off the ground and unzipped it. "They make us wear this."

"Remind me to send thank you cards to the athletic department." She said then Luke pulled out a pair of sweatpants putting them on over his shorts, he took a tee shirt and did the same over his tank top. "Hide it all you want, I still know what's on underneath."

"What are you still doing here, wasn't your mom supposed to pick you up after school?"

"I had a chemistry project to work on with my group, it was awful but seeing those shorts made it worth it."

Luke rolled his eyes and started walking towards the front of the school, Lorelai followed. "Why was it so awful?"

"Megan and Colleen fought the whole time about which way we should be doing the project, Alan was no help whatsoever and Theo threw up ending the chances of us getting the project finished today so we called it a night."

"Next time pretend you can't stay after school to help, they will do all the work and put your name on it."

"Have you ever done that before?"

He smirked. "I've never stayed after school to work on a project."

"You are a mastermind." She said as they finally reached the front of the school. "You know any good ways to get out of warm ups in gym class?"

"I've never tried, but falling seemed to work for you last time."

"Yeah, but if I use that too many times they will think I'm coming to school drunk again."

"Again?" Luke asked curiously.

"It wasn't at this school, that's a story for another time." Lorelai said then she took a seat on the school's front steps.

"What time is your mom getting here?"

Lorelai reached up and grabbed his arm turning it in a way she could read the watch on his wrist. "About ten minutes."

"I can sit with you, so you don't have to be alone till she gets here."

"Are you worried about me?" Lorelai asked with a grin.

"I'm worried that you'll get bored, and I can only imagine what happens when you don't have something to entertain you."

"So you are going to entertain me?"

"I can try."

"Take the sweatpants off and you will have my full attention."

"No." Luke said shaking his head then he sat down next to her.

"So this track thing you do, is it just running around the whole time?"

"Kind of, we also do hurdles and throwing exercises."

"Oh, do you do that thing where you throw the spear across the field and make it stab into the ground?"

"It's called a Javelin throw, and no."

"Yeah, I guess the idea of handing twenty high school students sharp sticks is not the most intelligent thing to do." Lorelai said and Luke nodded. "How long have you been doing track for?"

"Since sixth grade."

"Let me guess, you only did it to pick up chicks but then you really came to like it." Lorelai teased.

"No, I did it because the principal didn't think I participated enough and he told me to join a group. Track looked like it required the least time out of all the options so I picked it, and I could always run so it worked out good."

"You can definitely run, I'd think you were being chased by a axe murdering psychopath the way to take off." Lorelai said then looked at him. "Is there something in your head you are running from?"

"Yes." Luke said nodding. "I picture diabetes and knee replacement surgeries if I don't run fast enough."

"Luke Danes, are you ever going to give me a real answer about your life?"

"I am being real."

"Then how come I know nothing about you? I've known you over a week and I haven't learned one personal detail about you other than you started track in sixth grade."

"Hey, that's more than most people know about me." Luke defended. "Besides, I don't know much about you either."

"The whole school has my entire life history floating around school, I'm sure you can find a timeline on the bulletin board over there." She said, pointing towards the board.

"I never listen to the gossip that goes around in this school."

"Okay, how about this. I'll tell you something, then you tell me something." Lorelai suggested.

"I don't like the idea of this game." Luke said annoyed.

"That doesn't count as your one thing." Lorelai said and turned to him. "I'll start.. I know it is cliche, but I have always wanted a pony." She bumped his arm. "Now you go."

"I have never wanted a pony."

"You can't just say that."

"Why not?" Luke asked. "It's true."

"Because you have to have your own answer, you can't piggyback off of whatever I say. Tell me something you have always wanted."

"In this particular moment, peace would be nice."

"Luke, you are terrible at this game."

"I told you I wouldn't like it."

"Come on, Luke." She said and put her hand on his shoulder. "Dig down deep and tell me something meaningful."

He stared at her for a moment till he heard a car pull up, he looked over and saw a brunette woman glaring over at them. "I think your mom is here."

Her hand dropped and she looked over at her mom. "I should go, I'll see you tomorrow." Lorelai said and stood up walking to the car.

"Bye, Lorelai." He said, she waved back at him as she got into her mother's car.

"Who's that boy?" Emily asked as Lorelai put on her seatbelt.

"That's Luke, I told you about him." Lorelai said, she noticed Emily looking out the window at Luke who was standing up gathering his things. "Are you going to drive?" She asked, Emily nodded then they drove off.

"Does Luke has a girlfriend?" Emily asked.

"Ahh." Lorelai said then stopped to think about it. "I'm not really sure, I don't think he does."

"He's a cute kid."

"Do you want me to get his phone number for you?" Lorelai asked jokily.

"Lorelai." Emily warned.

"No, I've got a better idea, I'll slip him a note in class. Do you like my mother? Check yes or no."

"I was only saying he looked like a cute kid, the two of your seemed pretty comfortable together."

"Yeah, we are comfortable together. We are friends after all and who wants friends you can't stand to be around."

"So you are just friends?" Emily asked and Lorelai exhaled.

"We are just friends, mom." She said then they shared a quiet ride home, much to Lorelai's delight.

The next day at school Luke and Kirk were the first ones to be seated at the lunch table, Luke took a few bites into his salad while Kirk arranged the fries on his plate by size.

"I'm thinking about wearing a cape to school." Kirk said and Luke looked over at him, he chewed the remainder of food in his mouth as he turned away.

"No." He said simply then Lorelai and Sookie took a seat next to them.

"Finally, lunch." Lorelai said and took a bite into her cheeseburger, a couple of students walked near their table and she overhears one of them talking about the fall festival. "Hey, what is that fall festival about?" She asked, earning a groan from Luke.

"It's an event the town is throwing." Sookie answered.

"One of the many idiotic town events they throw." Luke said.

"It doesn't sound idiotic." Lorelai defended. "The only time my town ever got together was when the Lester's painted their house the wrong shade of beige. Everyone stood outside and watched as committees stormed their door and issued them a warning to repaint it."

"They are actually pretty fun, they have booths with all sorts of food and games and-" Sookie said.

Lorelai cut in. "Sweetie, you had me at food." She stopped and took a sip of her milk before continuing. "So it's like a carnival?"

"Like an over the top town wide carnival, we have them every season." Sookie explained. "The spring one is usually my favorite because we light this big fire in the square."

"If they ever get the damn thing lite." Luke added.

"They have trouble keeping track of their matches."

"The fall one is this Friday, right?" Lorelai asked.

"Yeah." Sookie said then grabbed Lorelai excitedly. "Oh, do you want to go with me?"

"I'd have to ask my parents, I'm not sure my mom will be willing to pick my up that late."

"You can sleepover at my house, then you could go to the parade with me in the morning."

"You have a parade?" Lorelai asked shocked.

"Fruitcake floats everywhere." Luke teased.

Lorelai smiled at him. " If I am going you are too, mister."

"What?" Luke said and shook his head. "No way."

"Come on Luke, it will be fun."

"You can say that as an outsider, try living in this town and you would think differently."

"Do you have some big plans Friday night that you can't get out of?" Lorelai asked.

"No."

"Then it's settled, you are going."

"Wait-" He tried to protest.

"Kirk, are you coming too?" Lorelai asked before Luke could say another word.

"Somewhat." Kirk said. "The mayor is paying me to work at one of the booths, it's gonna be my first real job."

"That is awesome, Kirk." Lorelai said then she saw Jackson walking by their table. "Hey, Jackson?"

Sookie leaned over to Lorelai and whispered, "What are you doing?"

He walks over and glances nervously at Sookie. "Yeah?"

"Are you going to the festival tomorrow?"

"I'm not sure, I didn't really have anyone to go with."

Lorelai elbowed Sookie then she blunted out, "You can come with me- us." Sookie said awkwardly. "You can come with us because the four of us are going together, well Kirk's working but he'll be there and-"

"Sookie." Lorelai said stopping her from rambling.

Jackson smiled at her. "I'd really like that."

"Sit, we can arrange a good meeting spot." Lorelai said and Jackson took a seat next to Sookie. "Anyone got any ideas?"

"The town square would probably do." Luke said. "You know, where the event is being held."

"Good idea, that would make sense." Lorelai said and looked over at Sookie and Jackson who were exchanging nervous smiles. "What do you two think?"

"Sounds good." Sookie said.

"Yeah, that works for me." Jackson added.

"Great, we got that settled." Lorelai said feeling accomplished as she bite back into her cheeseburger.

The next day seemed to drag on as slowly as it possibly could for Lorelai, normally school did but not since she had started here. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with this school day but by some stroke of luck she convinced her parents to let her go to the festival and spend the night at Sookie's house so the wait was killing her. She would finally get to see the town she had been getting dropped off in for two weeks now, she could explore their environment and meet the town's people she had already heard so much about. Luckily the school day did come to an end and after having dinner with Sookie's family the both of them headed to the town square to meet up with the rest of their friends.

"Will you stop shaking your leg?" Lorelai asked Sookie as they sat on a park bench.

"I'm sorry, I can't help it." Sookie said trying to stop her body from moving. "I've never been this nervous before, I've never been on a date much less a double date."

"Woah, double date?"

"And now I'm calling a hang out between two random people a date, he's going to think I am crazy."

"Sookie, you and Jackson will be on a date, trust me." Lorelai said reassuring her. "I was only saying double date like that because me and Luke will not be on a date."

"You won't be?" Sookie asked disappointed.

"No, I had to beg him to come. Besides we are just friends."

"Don't you like him?"

"Of course I like Luke otherwise inviting him would have been very strange."

"I don't mean like friends, I mean like like."

"I don't know, I think I might." Lorelai said and took a breathe. "But he is so frustrating sometimes, I can't get him to share anything with me and-" She stopped herself. "I'm not sure why I'm even thinking about it, he doesn't like me like that."

"What?" Sookie asked surprised. "He likes you, believe you me."

"He does not, everything about me bothers him. My eating habits, my jokes, the other day I kept making fun of shorts and he hated it."

"I think he likes you, I never say that guy mutter a word to anybody till you came around."

"He's so secretive, for all I know he could have a girlfriend."

"Or he could be gay."

"No." Lorelai said shaking her head. "I say the way he was looking at me last week when I unbuttoned my blouse, he's definitely not gay." She said and Sookie laughed. "Looks like all this talking calmed you down a bit."

"Yeah, it helped."

"Good, because Jackson is walking over to us."

Sookie stood up quickly. "Oh god, I can't do this."

"You got this, just turn around and smile. Lorelai said then Sookie turned, she put on an overly large smile. "Okay, a little less smiling."

"Hi." Jackson said as he reached the both of them.

"Hi." Lorelai said then she bumped Sookie.

"Hi Jackson." Sookie said nervously.

"You look very pretty tonight." Jackson told Sookie.

""Thank you, you do too.. Handsome, I mean."

All of them stood there silently for a moment then Jackson looked across the street. "It looks like Luke is coming." He said and both girls turned to look, he was crossing the street with a blonde girl by his side. Lorelai stared at the both of them and started to get a queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Hey, sorry I'm late." Luke said when they got next to them, Lorelai eyes still fixated you the two of them.

"Are you going to introduce me to your friends?" The blonde girl asked.

"Ah, yeah." He pointed to each of them as he named them off. "This is Jackson, Sookie and Lorelai." He pointed to the blonde girl. "This is my little sister, Liz."

Lorelai face filled with relief. "It's nice to meet you, Liz." She said kindly.

"You're Lorelai the Hartford private school girl, right?" Liz asked.

Lorelai looked over at Luke. "Did you tell her about that?" She asked, he shook his head no.

"No, he didn't tell me." Liz said. "Everyone was talking about it at our school, I'm a freshmen there."

"So every single grade at that school knows?"

"If one person here knows, the whole town knows. But don't sweat it, I think it's pretty badass."

"Liz!" Luke exclaimed.

"What?" Liz asked. "I'm sure Lorelai has heard swearing before."

"That doesn't matter, I don't want to hear it from you."

"Fine, I won't swear in front of you."

"At all would be better."

She shrugged. "Well, it was nice meeting you all but I have some friends waiting for me so I got to go."

"Which friends?" Luke asked.

"Just some people, you don't know them."

"Liz." He said concerned.

"Lighten up big brother, they're cool." She said then waved goodbye to everyone before taking off.

"So, shall we make the rounds?" Sookie asked.

"Let's find the booth Kirk's working at, I heard he's manning the ball toss one. We can go buy the baseballs and when we go to throw them we can hit him instead of the bottles."

"Finally a carnival game I can get on board with." Luke said and they started walking through the square.

"Lucas!" A voice said beside them said, Luke looked over and smiled at the women standing there.

"Mia." He walked over to her and went straight into a hug, Lorelai's jaw almost dropped when he say how sweet he was being.

"What are you doing here?" She asked. "I haven't seen you at a town event since you were shorter than me."

"I got conned into coming." Luke said shooting a look back at Lorelai, she smiled.

"It is great seeing you here, is your dad coming to?"

"No, he's working tonight."

"He's working every night, isn't he?" Mia joked. "Are you here with friends?" She said looking past him at the group of teenagers.

"Yeah." He said and waved them over. "That's Lorelai, and you know Sookie and Jackson." He looked over at Lorelai to explain. "Mia owns the inn in town."

"It's nice to meet you." She said and held her hand out to Mia.

She shook it with a smile. "Such a proper girl, you don't see that a lot anymore."

Lorelai smiled. "That's very cool owning your own inn, I would love to do something like that someday."

"It has it's up's and downs but at the end of the night it's a great feeling knowing I made something successful that people could enjoy."

"That's all you could really ask for."

"Yes, it is." Mia said smiling at Lorelai, she glanced at the two women walking towards them. "You ladies better claim your men quickly, Miss Patty and Babette are coming this way." She said, Luke and Lorelai looked at each other and Sookie and Jackson did the same before they all turned red in the face and awkwardly glanced away from each other.

"Mia, are you chatting up these beautiful young men without us?" The brunette woman asked.

"She's stealing them away from us." The blonde woman said.

"Babette, you are a married women now." Mia stated.

"That doesn't mean I can't look, it's what eyes are for after all." Said the women that Lorelai now knew was Babette, making the brunette Miss Patty.

"And what a sight to look at." Miss Patty said looking Luke over, Lorelai smiled at the way he was squirming uncomfortably. "You boys get more handsome every time I see you."

"Save me, please." Luke whispered to Lorelai, she smiled and linked her arm with his.

"They sure do." Lorelai said and both the women finally noticed her.

"Luke, who is this darling girl you have with you?" Miss Patty asked.

"Girlfriend?" Babette asked hopefully.

"Ah, this is my friend Lorelai." Luke said.

"Lorelai Gilmore, the new girl?" Babette said, slightly above a normal tone of voice.

"Did they print out a article about me in your town newsletter or something?" Lorelai asked.

"No sugah, we only do that when new people move to the town."

"How are you liking the school?" Mia asked.

"I'm really enjoying it, it's not like any other school I've been to."

"You wouldn't happen to be a dancer?" Miss Patty asked. "I just opened a studio in town and I'm looking for new students."

"I'm afraid not, at best I can do a mean chicken dance."

Miss Patty laughed. "If I ever have use for dancing poultry I will let you know."

"We should let these kids get back to the festival, no use talking to us old broads all night." Mia suggested.

"Oh yes, it was lovely meeting you, Lorelai." Miss Patty said.

"Likewise." Lorelai said.

"Take care of this boy, he may be quiet but he's one of the good ones." Babette said, Lorelai smiled and Luke and he looked down at his sneakers. They are said their goodbyes and the group went back to walking the event, they got to the town gazebo as the mayor finished up a speech. A man in a button up shirt and khakis that had been standing next to the mayor walked down the stairs and starting coming towards them.

"Who's that?" Lorelai asked.

"Taylor Doose, he's the mayor's errand boy." Luke answered. "If I didn't know any better I'd say he was plotting to take over this whole town one day."

"Hello Luke, nice to see you here with some friends." Taylor said as he reached their group.

"Nice to see you here without a cardigan." Luke said dryly, Taylor ignored him and went on.

"It's always good to see you teens making it out for these events, most kids these days would rather stay home and watch their MTV."

"Oh, not us." Lorelai said. "We know the best music is right here." She glanced over at the elementary band students playing terribly off key to their song.

"Well have fun and make sure to stop at the gazebo for a polaroid with the minuteman mascot." Taylor said before walking off.

"He's got a presence." Lorelai said.

"He's got something alright." Luke said then a man at a booth next to them started talking to him.

"One dollar for five darts, hit four balloons and you win a prize."

"No, I'm good." Luke said shaking his head.

"You don't want to win a prize for the lovely lady." He asked, looking at Lorelai.

Lorelai laughed and leaned towards Luke. "If you win my a stuffed animal I will never talk to you again." She joked.

"Well, with that incentive." Luke said and pulled a dollar out of his pocket handing it to the man. "Give me the darts." He said and the man handed him five darts, he flung them across the booth one at a time hitting a balloon with each one.

"Winner, winner!" The man yelled and handed Luke a stuffed horse.

"Look at that." Luke said handing Lorelai the stuffed animal. "You finally get your pony and I finally get my peace."

"If you think I was being serious about not talking, you are insane." Lorelai stated and shoved the toy into her bag.

"I could only hope." Luke said and they continued walking. "So how long are you going to make me stay at this thing?"

"You need to stay to keep me company."

"I thought that's what they are for." Luke said pointing behind them at Sookie and Jackson.

Lorelai glanced backwards at them, they were whispering to each other and giggling. "Yeah, I think they will be in there own little world till we leave."

"You might be right about that."

"Oh, I'm right about everything. Have you not learned that yet?"

"Yes, and not at all modest."

"Modesty has never been my strong suit." Lorelai said, she caught an amazing aroma as they walked near the food booths. "Oh, let's get something to eat."

Sookie chimed in. "We just ate at my house."

"Yes, but that was real dinner food. This is festival food, completely different."

"How are you not five hundred pounds?" Luke asked.

"Come on butch, I'll buy you a corn dog."

As the night went on the four of them wandered to all parts of the festival, the food booths twice. Sookie and Jackson had gotten over their nervous breakdowns and seemed to be enjoying each other company and Lorelai had managed to get Luke to eat some funnel cake and play a few games with her, and if she wasn't mistaken she would say he was actually having fun. The two of them broke from the group about a half an hour ago, Lorelai insisting that they leave the two lovebirds alone.

"I am exhausted." Lorelai said plotting down on a park bench, Luke joined her and set his arm on the back of the bench behind her. "How are you not falling to the ground yet?"

"Four hours of slow paced walking doesn't really wind me."

"Good, then you can carry me the rest of the night."

"What are you thinking like piggy back ride or firemen carry?" Luke said sarcastically.

"Actually I'd prefer to be up on one of those chairs that you get carried around in, although we might need to find more people to help with that." Lorelai joked, she looked around the town square at all the people enjoying the festival and smiled. "This town is amazing."

"This town is insane."

"Admit it, you love this place."

Luke chuckled. "Love would not be the word I'd use to describe it."

"The people here are nothing like the ones in Hartford."

"Because the ones in Hartford don't wear tin foil hats?"

"Because the people in Hartford are so boring, so blain. You point out any two people there are I bet you they are exactly the same, but here anyone is so colorful. There are all one of a kind, you seriously could make a some kind of show starring all of them."

"Ones flew over the cuckoo's nest series?"

"You really can't say that you love living here?"

"I may not be able to say that." Luke said with a smirk. "But I can say that I'd rather be here right at this moment than anywhere else in the world."

"You'd rather be sitting on this cold bench, in this town with the world's worst band playing the same song over and over again than be anywhere else in the world?" Lorelai asked surprised.

"Yes."

"You wouldn't rather be in London?" She asked, he shook his head. "Paris?" He shook it again. "The moon?"

"No where else."

"What make this particular spot so special right now?" She asked, he smiled before reaching for her hand and intertwining their finger together.

Lorelai glanced at their hands with a smile then looked up to his eyes. "Oh."

He started to lean in closer to her, she closes her eyes and just before their lips meet he stopped and pulled backwards. "Son of a bitch."

"Well that ended quickly." She opened her eyes and noticed him staring at something behind her in the distance, when she turned around to look what had his attention she saw a group of people in an alley. From the looks of it they were holding beer bottles and the smoke formed around them was likely from cigarettes, her eyes fell on the blonde girl that was getting her neck kissed by the man at her side. "Is that your sister?"

"Yes." He said angrily, he stood up then took off in their direction.

Lorelai followed behind him the best she could, holding onto the sleeve of his sweatshirt so he wouldn't get too far ahead of her. "Luke, don't do anything stupid. Okay?" She asked but he didn't say a word till they reached the group of people.

"Liz, what the hell do you think you're doing?" He asked in a harsh tone.

"Heyyyy, when did you get here?" Liz asked as she hung onto the guy beside her to keep balance.

"I've been here, we walked here together."

The guy attached to her decided to chime in. "Take a hint dude, she came with you but she's leaving with me."

"The hell she is." Luke yelled. "And she is my sister jackass, so stop acting like you beat me in someway."

"What did you just call me?"

"Jackass." Luke said slowly. "You need me to spell it out or would that just confuse you more?"

"Don't start with him, big brother." Liz slurred. "I love him."

Luke grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him. "I hope you're okay with getting your heart broken tonight because you aren't seeing him again."

"What is your problem, man?" The guy asked.

"You are my problem, my sister is fourteen years old which I'm guessing you aren't." He said pointing at him. "You have her drunk, smoking cigarettes and who knows what else while you're practically molesting her in front of your burn out friends."

"Hey man, you can't rape the willing." He leaned closer to Luke. "And she is very willing, if you know what I mean."

Luke didn't take anytime before his fist was lifted and collided with the other guys face, the beer bottle dropped from the guys hand and shattered onto the ground. Luke got in a few more punches before Lorelai and a couple of the guys friends managed to pull him off, Luke pulled away from the strangers leaving only Lorelai's grip on his arm. "Let's go, Liz." Luke demanded. "Now." She let him take her arm and the three of them started walking away, before they could get out a the alley a cop car pulled up with the lights on. "Perfect."

The cop stepped out of his vehicle walking towards them all. "We had some complaints about some people in this alley drinking and smoking who looked a little too young to be doing either, you know anything about this?

"Don't know anything about that officer." One of the guys behind them said while slurring his words.

"Everyone hand me their ids and if you are old enough you can just head home."

"No, you can't send these guys home." Luke said. "I don't care if they are old enough or not, they got my fourteen year old sister drunk."

"What crap coming from the dude who just assaulted me, he's just trying to cause trouble with us." The guy who currently had a stream of blood running down his face said.

"Did you assault him?" The officer asked Luke.

"Yes." Luke exhaled. "I hit him a few times, but it was only because of how he was treating my sister."

"I'm gonna call another car and we can sort this out at the police station." The officer said then radioed in to another officer.

"No." Liz said to Luke. "We can't let dad find out about this."

"Well if you didn't want dad to know you shouldn't have done it." He said then turned to Lorelai who still had her hand gripped to Luke's sleeve. "Lorelai, why don't you head back with Sookie and Jackson and I'll catch up with you tomorrow."

The officer took a step in front of her and raised up his hand. "Miss, you can't leave either. Everyone is coming with to the station."

"I'm supposed to staying with my friend tonight and she doesn't drive so she's not going to be able to pick me up after." Lorelai said.

"That's alright, only parents will be able to pick you up anyways."

"My parents?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Please, you can not call my parents. It doesn't matter if I wasn't involved they will find a way to make this my fault, they are masters in that way."

"Sorry, but it's prodecal." He said as the other police car pulled up and an officer stepped out. "I'll have the three of you come with me and they can ride with Collins." He lead them to his car and they climbed into the back seat, Luke taking the middle. The officer started up his car then they were off to the police station.

"My parents are gonna kill me." Lorelai said putting her face in her palms. "I promised them this school would be different, that I wouldn't get in trouble here and now I broke the agreement." She said then pulled her hands after from her face. "I wouldn't be surprised if they had the car packed up to bring me to boarding school when they pick me up."

"What agreement?" Luke asked. "And why are you talking about boarding school?"

"They gave me a chance to pick a school I would succeed at and if it didn't work out my last option was boarding school."

"They can't do that, they can't send you away for something you didn't even take part in."

"You don't know my parents, it doesn't matter what I tell them they aren't going to believe me."

Luke put his hand on her knee apologetically. "I'm so sorry I got you involved in this."

"Hey, this wasn't your fault either." She said sternly. "This was no more your fault than it was mine, you didn't do anything wrong."

"Actually, I punched a guy in the face."

"If you wouldn't have, I would have."

Luke looked at her with a smirk. "You would have, huh?"

"Don't underestimate these tiny fists." She said holding up her hands. "They are packed with caffeine filled power."

"Remind me to never get on your bad side."

Lorelai smiled, she looked over at Liz who was now asleep against the car window. "You think your sister will get in a lot of trouble?"

"Probably one month grounding, but she won't learn. When the months up she'll be right back out there, maybe not with those guys but it will be a whole new group of idiots."

"It's nice you look out for her though, who knows what could have happened tonight if you didn't show up."

"I won't always be there to protect her."

"You will always be there, I can tell that's the type of person you are."

Luke smiled then took a moment before he spoke again. "I think I'd rather be in London now."

"Me too." Lorelai said then reached over and grabbed his hand to hold.

He looked down at their hands clasped together then back at her. "Maybe here is good too."

Luke, Lorelai and Liz spent the next couple hours explaining to the officers what all happened, they decided it was best for Liz to sleep it off on one of the cots till her father got there and they let Luke and Lorelai sat on a bench in their office area.

"You know, you never told me you had a little sister and that she went to our school." Lorelai said to Luke.

"You know now." Luke said. "And what an honor that knowledge is."

"After everything that happened tonight I think you owe me at least three personal details about yourself."

"I'm fifthteen, I go to Stars Hollow High-"

Lorelai cut in. "Hey, you can't say things I already know about."

"Your games have a lot of rules."

"This isn't a game, I'm trying to get to know you."

"Fine." Luke exhaled. "I have lived in Stars Hollow my whole life." He started and Lorelai kept count of her fingers. "I only have one sibling, and what a joy she is."

Lorelai chuckled. "Go on."

"I like-" He was cut off quickly by a raging voice near them.

"Jail?" Emily yelled, she walked over to the both of them on the bench and Luke straightened up so he was no longer close to Lorelai. "I get a call saying to pick my only daughter up at jail? I let you spend the night out with those carnies, I agree to let you stay with one of them and this is what you do."

"It wasn't my fault, mom." Lorelai stood up and pleaded.

"It never is, Lorelai."

Luke got up from the bench and stood next to Lorelai. "It really wasn't her fault, Mrs. Gilmore."

"Who are you?" Richard questioned.

"Luke Danes, I'm Lorelai's friend from school."

Emily breathed a sharp breath out. "Of course, you got in trouble with a guy. I knew that school was going to be a bad idea."

"She didn't do anything wrong, she just got caught up in the whole situation."

"We were told our daughter was involved with a group of people drinking and fighting, how is that not doing anything wrong?" Richard asked sternly.

"We were at the festival with some friends and we were not causing any trouble, I noticed my little sister standing with the group of people drinking so I went over to them and Lorelai came with." Luke explained. "I didn't want to cause any trouble I just wanted to get my sister away from them but they were not making it easy and I ended up punching a guy who was making disrespectful comments about my sister." He placed his hand on his chest gesturing to him. "This is my fault, Lorelai helped pull me off the guy and that's it."

"Is this true, Lorelai?"

"It wasn't Luke's fault either but yes, that is true."

"I will tell the officers we are taking you home now." Richard said then walked over to a desk handing the officer his id.

The three of them stood silent a moment before Emily spoke up. "I can bring you to Sookie's in the morning if you still plan on going to the parade." She told Lorelai.

"Thanks, mom." Lorelai said surprised.

"We're free to go." Richard said as he got back to where they were standing.

Lorelai turned to Luke. "Bye Luke, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Monday at school." Luke said.

"You aren't coming to the parade tomorrow?"

"My dad probably won't be in a very good mood after everything that happened tonight so I'm gonna stay home with him and watch some baseball, try to cheer him up."

"Alright, I'll see you Monday." She said and began to walk with her parents.

"I'm very sorry about this, Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore."

Emily nodded. "Goodbye, Luke." She said as they continued to walk away.

"Bye." He said then took a seat back on the bench, Lorelai peeked back at him once before they got out of view and gave me a wink. He smiled shaking his head, tonight had been a complete mess but it did have it's moments.

The next morning Emily brought Lorelai to Sookie's house as promised, Jackson had work to do and his family's farm so it was a girls only outing. While they were at the parade Lorelai explained everything that happened last night to Sookie, including Luke sticking up for her to her parents but she saved the best part for last.

"Before any of the chaos started Luke and I were just sitting on a park bench talking, he took my hand and started leaning in to kiss me." Lorelai explained.

"What?!" Sookie screamed over all the loud noise of the parade and everyone looked their way.

Lorelai laughed. "Take it down a few notches there, squeaky."

"Sorry." She said with a smiled still plastered on her face. "So he kissed you?"

"No." Lorelai said and Sookie's smile faded. "He saw Liz and that's when we went over to them, you know what happened after that."

"But he was going to kiss you?"

"I think so." Lorelai nodded. "I didn't think he liked me that way, I thought I bugged him."

"I think that's one of the things he likes about you. Do you like him?"

"I really really do, I have never felt like this with anyone before."

"I think you two make a great couple."

"We aren't technically a couple yet, by Monday he could have realized how crazy he was being and go for someone else."

"Not gonna happen, that boy only has eyes for you."

"He should get some glasses."

"Hey." Sookie said and elbowed her lightly. "Don't put yourself down, you are a great person."

"With a desfunical home life."

"Your parents believed you last night, doesn't that count for something?"

Lorelai smiled. "It does, they have never done that before."

"Things can only get better from here."

"Don't get too crazy, it was one slip up but these people don't change."

"This town changes people, it could change them too."

"How?" Lorelai asked.

"Luke got them to believe you, everyone here already loves you and they have ways of convincing people too."

"This town is already a better family to me then they have ever been, I wish I could come live here with all of you."

"Give them a chance to make things better first and if that fails you know where we are."

"Thanks, Sookie." Lorelai said and linked her arm to hers.

"So.." Sookie said and paused. "Did you almost kiss in front of people?"

"We were on a bench so yeah, people were probably around us."

"That explains all the looks you are getting."

Lorelai looked around at all the people surrounding them, each one staring at her with smiles. "How do all of them know?" She asked. "It's not like we were on a stage in front of them."

"It's Stars Hollow, good gossip is like the plague."

"But more painful."

"Still wanna live in this crazy town?" Sookie asked, Lorelai smiled before they went back to watching the floats drive by. This town could really change a person, and she hoped she would get the honor of being one of the people it had it's effect on.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Sorry for this slow update, hadn't had much time to write with work and all the other disadvantages of life that keep me after from my keyboard but I did make this a slightly bigger chapter because I took so long to update. It was such a fun chapter to write and I hope it was worth the wait. Thank you for reading, let me know what you think and as always please enjoy!

Lorelai walked the halls with Sookie on their way to their lockers to get prepared for the first class of the day, it was the Monday morning after she spent a portion of her weekend exploring Stars Hollow. She walked quietly, which didn't happen often but she had a lot on her mind. She wondered what would happen with Luke after everything they went through at the festival and if he would still be interested in her even after meeting her parents, something about them tended to scare guys away. And she thought about her parents, they hadn't brought up her ending up at a police station once since it happened and that scared her. She knew these people well and they don't just let things go so easily, she was sure that it would come back to haunt her at some point but she wasn't sure when.

"Lorelai." Sookie said, snapping her out of her trance. "Where is your head at?"

"Sorry, I was thinking about some stuff."

"Some Luke stuff?" Sookie asked raising her eyebrows.

"Among other things." Lorelai said with a sigh. "Talk to me about something, I need a distraction."

"Umm, are you going to the homecoming dance this weekend?"

"Homecoming dance, the school is having one of those?"

"Most schools do, did you not see the hundreds of flyers on the walls announcing it?"

Lorelai took a moment to look around and saw at least fifteen flyers in sight. "I guess my head was gone.. But wait, isn't it a little late in the school year to have homecoming?"

"We usually do it at the end of september but the whole football team got into a hayride accident and we had to change the games."

"I didn't know hayride accidents were a thing."

"It's the second time it happened here this year." Sookie said as they reached her locker. "I'll meet you at your locker after I get my stuff."

"Don't keep me waiting too long or I'll find a new best friend to walk to class with."

"Don't you dare." Sookie warned.

Lorelai smiled and turned away walking to her locker, when she got close to it she noticed it was already open and Luke was the one who had done it. She walked behind him and said his name loudly making him jump. "Luke, did you break into my locker?"

"Geez, don't sneak up on people like that." Luke said as he turned to face her.

"Well don't break into my locker then."

"I did not break into your locker." He glanced at the open locker then back at her. "Okay, I broke into your locker."

Lorelai's mouth widened. "Ah, someone should have stayed in the slammer longer. Have you not learned your lesson about committing crimes?"

"I'm not sure breaking into a school locker is a crime worth jail time but I'm not doing it to steal or snoop."

"If it's not one of the two S's, what are you doing it for then?"

"I'm fixing it." He said and held up some tools in his hand.

Lorelai smiled widely. "You're gonna make it stop sticking?"

"That's the plan." He said turning back to work on it.

"Am I going to get a bill taped to my locker once you are finished?"

"No."

"This is a free gesture? Why you really are a gentlemen."

"I'm not a gentlemen, I'm doing this because although it was entertaining to watch you try and get this thing open everyday whenever you couldn't you would come find me and make me do it."

"It that it?" Lorelai asked.

Luke stopped what he was doing at looked at her. "That and, I wanted to apologize again for this weekend. I'm sure you weren't planning on spending your friday night at a police station."

"One never plans that." She teased and Luke kept working. "Even with all the chaos it shaped up to be a pretty good night."

"Good, I was worried I might have ruined your first Stars Hollow event and I usually like to wait for the townspeople to do that for you."

"Naw, if anything spending the night in jail helped my rep."

"You know we didn't actually spend the night in jail?" Luke turned to her. "We never even walked by a cell."

"Oh, that's not how I'm going to be telling the story." Lorelai said making him grin, he used his shoulder to shut her locker then moved aside.

"It's all done."

She reached forward to put in the code then opened the locker with ease. "You're amazing."

"You remember that." He said leaning towards her as he walked by to leave, she put on a giddy smile as she watched him walk away.

"You truly are amazing, Luke." Someone mocked as he walked by him.

"Shut up, Bootsy." Luke said and kept walking, Lorelai laughed quietly.

"Excuse me." A boy next to Lorelai said, she turned to him. "Lorelai, right?"

"Yes, that's my name." She said unsurely.

"I was wondering if you would like to go to the homecoming dance with me?"

Lorelai looked at the stranger beside her oddly. "I don't even know you."

"Going to an event together would be a good way to get to know me."

"I'm sorry, I'm sure if I got to know you that you are a great guy but I'm actually waiting to see if someone asks me first." Lorelai said. She wasn't sure where that excuse came from, she wondered if she trully was waiting for a certain someone to ask her.

"Oh, okay." He said, clearly feeling defected. "I guess I'll keep looking."

"You do that." Lorelai said and he walked away.

"Never gonna happen." Said the guy Lorelai now knew was Bootsy.

"Excuse me?" Lorelai asked when she noticed he was looking at her.

"If you are waiting for Luke to ask you it won't happen."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Lorelai said grabbing her books then shutting her locker.

"The girls at this school wait every year to get him to go with them but he never does, he stays at home. Frankly I enjoy his little tradition, I get my pick at the girls who are in a panic because they waited too long for him and they don't have a date."

"I am not waiting for Luke to ask me, I just didn't want to hurt that kids feelings by saying no." Lorelai explained.

"Whatever you have to tell yourself." Bootsy said shutting his locker. "But hey, if you wait too long you know where I am." He said and walked away, Lorelai rolled her eyes.

"Creep." She said to herself then Sookie walked up to her.

"Sorry it took so long, Jackson needed to talk to me a minute."

"Talk, is that what you crazy kid are calling it these days?" Lorelai teased.

"Were you just talking to Bootsy?"

"You mean the airhead in the Styx tee shirt?"

"That would be him."

"Yeah, I had a one minute conversion with him and already I'd like to kick him in the head."

"I think Luke has that same feeling about him most the time."

"Really? Why is that?"

"I guess it goes back to an incident in the first grade, something about a clay hand print being destroyed."

"I'll have to mock him about that later." Lorelai said as they started walking to class.

Later that same day Luke and Kirk are walking to lunch together, well not so much walking together as Kirk insisting on following Luke there. They stop shy of an empty classroom when they hear a girl inside it crying, they look over and Lulu is sitting at a desk with her head down.

"What is that about?" Luke asked Kirk.

"My brother and Lulu got into a huge fight at the festival, he broke up with her in front of everyone."

Luke stared at Kirk, who looked sad as he watched Lulu cry. "What are you waiting for, get in there."

"She doesn't want me bugging her, it looks like she wants to be alone right now."

"Never leave a girl alone, that's your first mistake. Girls have a tendency of over thinking things, you leave her alone long enough and she will have herself convinced whatever happened was her fault and she will go running straight back to your brother." Luke explained. "Remember, be there." He patted him on the back then Kirk took his evidence and walk into the classroom. Luke watched as he went up to her saying her name, she wiped her eyes and put on a fake smile before saying hi to him. He grabbed a chair and pulled it up to the desk she was sitting at before asking if she was okay, she shook her head no. Luke grinned slightly as he looked at them then made his way to lunch.

When he gets to the cafeteria he is the first one of their group there so he takes a seat at his table, soon after Lorelai takes a seat right next to him.

"The students at this school are crazy, I've been asked to the homecoming dance by six different guys."

"I've had seven girls ask me." Luke said cockily.

"Okay, it's not a competition unless I'm winning because I never lose." Lorelai said holding out her pointer finger. "Besides, aren't the guys supposed to ask the girls?"

"I'm not completely sure on the tradition but I got asked last year too so must be okay for either to ask."

"That doesn't surprise me, you know I've been told there is a long line of women waiting for you to ask them to homecoming."

"I bet you have a long line of men waiting to ask you."

"Oh yes, I've actually had them form into two lines because the first was getting way too crowded."

Luke looked at her in the side of his eye as he nonchalantly took a bite of his food. "So, what guy made the cut?"

"I haven't said yes to anybody yet." She said and he nodded. "I'm planning on waiting till I get asked a seventh time, lucky number seven."

"So, what if there were a guy that wanted to take you to homecoming but didn't like the whole fuss about finding a crazy way to ask you?"

Lorelai smiled. "He could just turn to me and ask," She said then Luke looked at her. "Will you go to homecoming with me?"

"Thanks for asking, I'd love to." Luke said slyly.

Lorelai jaw dropped in awe. "You tricked me into that!"

"Lucky number eight."

"Lucky number eight is not a thing."

"Thinking one number is any luckier than another is crazy, eight could just as easily be the luckier number."

"But that kid Bootsy, he told me you never go to homecoming."

"Bootsy is an idiot." Luke stated.

"So you have gone to the homecoming dance before?"

"No, I haven't but I was just telling you that he's an idiot."

"You do know that if we go to this thing there will be dancing, right?"

"Are you serious, I hadn't realized that yet." Luke said sarcastically. "You dance at dances? I wonder if that's where they got the name from."

"I'm just saying, do you even know how to dance?"

"I guess you will find out Saturday." Luke said as Sookie and Jackson took a seat at the table, they both were smiling and Sookie had a rose in her hand.

"What are you two so giddy about?" Lorelai asked.

"Jackson asks me to homecoming!" Sookie said excitedly.

"I wanted to ask you last year but I was too scared." Jackson told her.

"I can't believe I'm going to homecoming, I never thought anyone would ask."

"They would be crazy not to."

Sookie grins. "Oh, I'm gonna need to get something to wear." She said then looked at Lorelai. "Lorelai, you want to come shopping with me?"

"I'm always up for shopping besides I need to pick out something too."

"You're going?" Sookie squealed.

"With Luke." Lorelai said then smiled at him.

"Luke, you asked a girl to homecoming?" Sookie asked.

"She asked me." He said pointing at Lorelai.

"You tricked me into it." Lorelai defended.

"You asked him?" Sookie asked.

"Again, he tricked me into it."

Kirk ran up behind Luke and grabbed his shoulders. "Luke!"

"What the hell, Kirk?"

"It worked, I'm taking Lulu to homecoming." Kirk said and shook Luke excitedly. "I'm getting us both some egg salad sandwiches and were eating in the classroom. Thank you, Luke!" Kirk said then ran off towards the cafeteria lines.

"What was that all about?" Lorelai asked.

"Remind me to kill him later." Luke said annoyed.

They went through the rest of lunch talking about their plans for the night of homecoming, Sookie told Lorelai she could stay at her house after so her mom didn't have to drive so late to pick her up. They decided on Jackson as their driver since he was the only one with his license, and they even caught up with Kirk and Lulu and told them they could ride with when they picked up Lorelai in Hartford.

Later on that day Lorelai and Luke were in home ec. class, they were waiting for the teacher to hand out the pillow cases they made after she graded them. She handed Luke his and told him good job then she stopped at Lorelai.

"You did a great job, Lorelai." The teacher said handing her the pillow case and a graded piece of paper that had an A at the top. "It's one of the best I've seen in all my years of teaching, you have quite an act for design."

Lorelai smiled looking at her grade. "Thank you." She said then the teacher walked to the next student.

"Told you you did a great job with that." Luke said while the gathered up their stuff and started leaving the classroom.

"I knew I'd get a good grade but I didn't expect an A, what did you get?"

"B-." Luke said holding up his paper.

"Hey, if we ever get married we could save a lot of money by making our own bedding." Lorelai teased.

"Married?" Luke said shocked.

"I'm just messing with you Luke, don't go fainting on me."

"I wasn't going to faint."

"You turned pure white, I thought I was gonna have to call for help."

Lorelai reached her locker and Luke stopped with her. "So what are you going to tell your parents about the homecoming dance?"

"I'll tell them that we will be sure to use condoms when we have crazy sex in the locker room."

"Geez." Luke said as a tint of red formed on his cheeks. "That's not funny, and please don't make that same joke to them."

"Are you scared of my parents?"

"Do you blame me, after everything you have told me about them."

"How about I tell them we are going as a group? No dates, just friends hanging out at a dance together."

"Will they believe that? Especially when it's three guys and three girls going together, your parents don't strike me as naive."

"They aren't naive, but I have a way of denying things till they believe me." Lorelai said then closed her locker. "Lorelai, is this your report card?" She asked in a different voice, Luke was guessing it was her mother's. "No mom, the teacher mixed mine up with Laura Gilbert's and she told me she would send the correct one as soon as possible but you still have to sign this one now so she knows she sent it to the right address."

"That worked?" Luke asked surprised.

"The first semester it did, sadly the other LG moved away before I could use it again."

"So we are going to keep this a secret from them?"

"It seems like the safest option, are you okay with it?"

"I don't like the idea of lying to your parents but it would be the best way to go about it."

"Trust me, the more you lie to them the easier it gets." Lorelai pointed to herself. "I should know."

Luke nodded then looked at his watch. "I gotta get to track practice."

"Why didn't you tell me you practice on Mondays, I would have told my mom to come later so I could watch you run around in those shorts."

"Goodbye, Lorelai." Luke said then walked away.

Lorelai threw her backpack over her shoulder and walked out of the school, she noticed her mom's car right away but the person in it was unfamiliar to her.

"Excuse me, you're in my moms car." Lorelai said to the women.

"Lorelai, I meet you this morning." She said and Lorelai looked at her.

"Oh, you are our new maid."

"Yeah, your mom had a meeting that ran long so she sent me to get pick you up."

Lorelai opened the door and climbed into the car. "Sorry I didn't realize, when I'm half asleep I don't remember anything. Plus my mother employees so many people that I tend to lose track."

"It's alright, how was school?"

"Good, really good." Lorelai said with a smile.

They drove the way home to the Gilmore mansion and Lorelai thanked her for the ride her before going to her room, she switched into some more comfortable clothes then grabbed in her backpack to find her books. The first thing she felt was her pillow case and she smiled pulling it out of her bag, she reached over and grabbed her pillow pulling the expensive satin case off and putting her homemade one on.

"Much better." She said to herself then grabbed her books and sat at her desk to study.

A couple hours later when she was all finished up she closed up her books just as she heard a knock on her door.

"Come in." Lorelai yelled and Emily opened the door.

"Sorry I couldn't pick you up, a meeting I had ran long." Emily said, walking into the room.

"That's alright, the maid got me home in one piece."

"How was school?"

"Good." Lorelai answered simply.

"Learn anything interesting?"

"The Periodic Table isn't just some old piece of furniture and Hitler was bad."

Emily rolled her. "You are learning stuff at this school, aren't you?"

"I'm learning."

Emily notices Lorelai's pillow and walks over to it picking it up. "Did you buy a new pillow case?"

"I made it actually, in home ec. class."

"This is very nice, you made this?"

"Yeah, the teacher said I have quite an act for design." Lorelai said and stood up. "I'm still not sure about it."

"It's great, really." Emily said and set it back onto the bed. "Dinner in twenty minutes, okay?" She said then started to walk away but Lorelai stopped her.

"Mom?"

Emily turned back around. "Yes, Lorelai?"

"A bunch of my friends are going to the homecoming dance this Saturday and they wanted to know if I could come with."

"Which friends?" Emily asked curiously.

"Sookie, Jackson, Luke, Kirk and Lulu." She said quickly, hoping that would in some way help disguise Luke's name.

"Luke?"

"You've meet him."

"I know, you to seem to get thrown together a lot at that school."

"He's my friend, they all are."

"It's Saturday?" Emily asked.

"Yes but you don't have to drive me, Jackson is borrowing his mom's suv and they are all coming to pick me up. Sookie said I could stay the night at her house after and her mom would drive me home Sunday."

"How old is this Jackson that will be driving?"

"Sixteen, but he's been driving tractors since he was old enough to reach the peddles so he's a very good driver. I would need you to pick me up later tomorrow though because Sookie and I were gonna go shopping for an outfit to wear to the dance."

"I would have taken you shopping, although I'm not sure what one wears to a Stars Hollow dance."

"Jean shorts and cowboy boots." Lorelai teased.

"Lorelai."

"What? If I wear a dress it would tear once we start line dancing."

"How late does this dance go?"

"Till nine."

"And you would be going to Sookie's right after?"

"Her parents would make sure of it."

"And you will call me, let me know you made it to her house okay?"

"The second I get in the door."

"Alright."

Lorelai looked at her surprised. "Alright? As in alright, I can go?"

"You can go."

"Thank you, mom." Lorelai said sincerely.

"But if I get a call from any cops this time I will leave you there, you understand?"

"I got it."

"Clean up and get downstairs for dinner." Emily said then left the room, Lorelai grinned before following her.

The next day after school Lorelai and Sookie set out on their shopping spree to find the perfect dress to wear to their homecoming dance, Sookie decided to bring her to a little shop in town that sells in style clothing. Sookie had already settled on a cute dark blue floral dress, Lorelai on the other hand had no luck on her search yet.

"I want something nice but not to flashy." Lorelai said as they looked through the dresses on the store racks.

"So avoid any dresses with mirrors?" Sookie said holding up a reflective dress.

"Definitely."

"What about polka dots, polka dots are really in right now."

"I don't know, I don't think I'm a polka dot kinda girl."

"Lorelai, I found it!" Sookie said and held up a strapless black sequin dress.

"Oh, with a like a sheer bolero jacket?"

"That's perfect, and it goes with anything so it doesn't even matter what Luke wears."

Lorelai chuckled. "Ha, I wonder what he plans on wearing."

"It's gonna be weird seeing Luke all dressed up, I've only ever seen him in tee shirts."

"Five bucks says he shows up in jeans."

"It's formal attire only."

"Luke doesn't strike me as someone who obeys dress codes."

"I guess he doesn't." Sookie said then handed Lorelai the dress. "Go try it on, I'm dying to see what it looks like."

As the week went on Lorelai only got more excited for the dance, she couldn't believe that she was actually looking forward to going to a school dance. Luke and her had been flirtier than ever all week and she could only wonder when he was gonna work up the nerve to try and kiss her again, just the thought of it made her form butterflies in her stomach. She was amazed by how much she felt for this guy she had only meet three weeks ago, if she was watching anyone else act this way she probably would have teased them for getting so wrapped up in someone they barely knew. But maybe that was what made this seem so normal, it didn't feel like they had only just meet mere weeks ago. She felt like she knew him, he was kind but he didn't want you to know it and he was protective in a way that she always felt she was safe with him no matter what. Tonight she was going to a school dance with Luke and her best friends, no matter what happened she could tell it was going to be a good night.

"Here we go." Lorelai said to herself, taking one last look in the mirror before walking downstairs into the living room.

"You look beautiful, Lorelai." Emily said taking a picture of her. "Richard, doesn't she look beautiful?"

Richard looked up from his newspaper at her. "Yes, she does."

"Thank you." Lorelai said, moments after they heard the doorbell ring. "That's them." She said and started heading towards the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, I should be home around five."

"Wait." Emily said.

"What?" Lorelai asked.

"I need to meet your friends first."

"I told Sookie just to pick me up at the door."

"You are about to be riding in a car full of people, if you go missing I need to know who you are with."

"We are going to be late."

"The quicker you get them the sooner you leave."

Lorelai lets out a sharp breathe. "Okay mother, I'll get them." She said then walked to the front door and opened it. "My warden is insisting on meeting everyone."

"What?" Sookie asked.

"My mom says before I go she needs to meet everyone, apparently she thinks one of you will turn into Freddie Clegg." Lorelai said then Sookie turned back and waved to Jackson.

Jackson stepped out of his car leaving the door open. "What?"

"Lorelai's mom wants to meet everyone, tell them to come here." He nodded back at her then ducked into the car to talk to them. "Oh, you owe me five dollars by the way."

"What?" Lorelai asked then looked over at the car as Luke climbed out, he was wearing a black blazer over a dark blue vest and button up shirt with black slacks.

"He is definitely not wearing jeans."

"Wow, he looks fine as hell."

"Your mom is behind you." Sookie said nodding behind her.

Lorelai's eyes bug out and she turns around quickly, no one was there. She grinned and shook her head at Sookie. "You are pure evil."

"I have to have a dark side sometimes." Sookie said then the whole group walked up behind her.

"Sorry everyone, my mom has my leg shackled to this house till she meets you all." She gestures for them to come inside and they all walk into the foyer, Luke being the last one in. She shuts the door and Luke puts his head on her shoulder stopping her.

"Lorelai."

"Yeah, Luke?"

"Are they really going to be okay with me being one of the people going to the dance with you, I didn't make a great first impression."

"They already know you are one of the people I'm going with, so they should be fine."

"So they don't hate me?" Luke asked and Lorelai chuckled.

"It's still a pretty big possibility so stand a good five feet away." Lorelai teased then she started walking towards the living room. "Follow me." She said and they all walked out to where her parents were standing. "Mom, dad." She pointed to each person as she introduced them. "This is Sookie, Jackson, Kirk, Lulu and you've met Luke."

"Why yes, we have." Emily said glaring over at Luke, she turned to Sookie before talking again. "Your mother is okay with Lorelai staying the night?"

"Yeah, she doesn't mind as long as we don't stay up too late."

"No pillow fights after three am, strict rules." Lorelai said.

Emily turned to Jackson. "And Jackson, you are driving?"

"Yes, ma'am." He answered politely.

"Nothing over the speed limit?"

Kirk chimed in. "He drives twenty miles under the speed limit."

"That's a bit of an exaggeration." Jackson said to Kirk.

"An older couple passed you on the freeway." Sookie joked.

"Mom, we really need to get going." Lorelai said and Emily nodded.

"Alright, Lorelai." She said then looked at her friends. "Nice meeting you all."

As they all walked away Richard called out for Luke. Luke stopped, turning around he walked back to him while everyone else went to the foyer. "I don't care if it is your fault or not, if my daughter comes home hurt or in trouble I'm coming to find you. You understand?"

"Yes sir." Luke answered.

"Go on." Richard said then Luke walked to the foyer next to Lorelai.

"What was that about?" Lorelai asked.

"Nothing, let's go." Luke said and they walked out the front door.

The ride to Stars Hollow was more fun than she would have expected from a simple car ride, Jackson was a great driver and kept his attention on the road the whole time but the rest of them sang along loudly to songs on the radio. Lorelai couldn't get Luke to sing any verses but she would catch him smiling anytime they all tried to hit the high notes. She wasn't sure when it happened but his arm was resting behind her on the car seat and he let it fall to wrap around her when a radio commercial started and they stopped singing. His touch alone put her stomach in knots, she didn't know what it was about him that made her feel this way but she was trying to get past it so she could just enjoy his embrace. Once they got to the high school Jackson parked on the side of the street near the school, Luke removed his arm from her leaving her feeling suddenly empty without him beside her. Like the gentlemen he refused to believe he was Luke held his hand out to help Lorelai out of the car, she placed her hand in his with a smile and climbed out behind him. The six of them quickly found their way into the school and after checking in they entered the decorated gymnasium.

"Whoa." Lorelai said, looking around the room. "They really decked this place out."

"Yeah, you can hardly see your drained blood on the floor anymore." Luke said pointed at the ground where she had fell her first week there.

"It's hard to believe this is where we run laps everyday, it looks less scary this way." Sookie said.

"We should tell them to leave the streamers up, make gym class more entertaining." Lulu added.

"The only way they could make it more entertaining is if they took away the laps." Lorelai joked. "Luckily tonight they won't be forcing us to do anything active."

"You know this is a dance right, which involves moving around." Luke said.

Lorelai gasped. "This is all apart of their evil plan, get us all excited about decorations and dressing up to make us work out in the gym after hours." She said as if they had some big conspiracy going. "We fell for it all and now they have the upper hand."

"What advantage do they have by watching a bunch of teenagers dance around like morons?" Luke asked.

"The control, the fact that they could tell us to dance and we would." Lorelai explained very seriously. "We are their own personal robots."

"Please tell me you are kidding."

"I am." Lorelai said with a smile. "We should get some punch."

Luke shock his head. "I'll get it, does anyone else want some?" He asked and they all politely declined. "Okay, I'll be right back." He said then walked away from the group over to the drink table, he grabbed two cups of punch before heading back towards his group.

"Luke Danes." A female voice near him said, he stopped and looked over at her.

"Carrie." He said with a slight annoyance in his voice already.

"Wow you look amazing tonight, the last time I saw dressed up like this was at your sister's elementary school graduation. You were the hottest older sibling in the whole place."

"I was twelve years old, I'm pretty sure no one is hot at that age."

"You were." Carrie said stepping closer to him, he backed away as much as he could without running into the people behind him. "It's actually better that Liz is grounded, she always keeps me away from you anytime we hang out."

"I'll remember to thank her for that when I get home tonight." Luke said and she laughed as if he was joking.

"You're gonna to save me a dance, right?"

"I'm not much of a dancer." He lied, hoping to get out of it.

"You made a mistake coming to a dance then." She stepped closer again. "Just one dance, I'll make it worth your while."

"I can't, I'm here with Lorelai."

"Lorelai Gilmore, the new girl?" Carrie asked.

"She's not that new, she has almost been here a month already."

"You have got to be kidding me, I've known you since I was in first grade and you never asked me out. Lorelai is here a few weeks and you are bringing her to the homecoming dance."

"I don't feel that way about you."

"But you feel that way about her?"

"Yes, I really do." Luke said and she gave him an evil stare. "I'm sorry."

"You are going to be sorry about this."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"You'll see." She said and walked away in a huff, Luke chose to ignore her comment and finished walking back to his group.

"Who was that you were talking to?" Lorelai asked, having had watched the whole interaction without being in earshot enough to hear what had been going on.

He handed her the cup of punch. "Crazy Carrie, she is one of my sister's friends."

"She looked mad at you."

"She doesn't get the name crazy Carrie for nothing, she was just getting upset over nothing."

"Well we were all talking and we were thinking we should take our pictures now before we get sweaty and disgusting from dancing."

"Pictures?" Luke asked. "There is gonna be proof of me wearing these idiotic clothes?"

"I think you are the crazy one, you look good."

Luke smirked. "Good how?"

"If you two are done flirting can we get the pictures, I really want to start dancing." Sookie said.

"I'm not sure we are done but we can put it on pause a moment for the sake of our photo." Lorelai said then turned to Luke and grabbed his punch, she set both the cups on the ground.

"What are you doing?" Luke asked.

"We can't be holding cups in the photo."

"We can't leave them on the floor, someone might kick them over."

"They will be fine there, let's find someone to take the picture." Lorelai said then went up to a teacher near them, she held up her disposable camera. "Do you mind taking a picture of our group?"

"Of course." She said and took the camera.

They all got bunched up together as close as possible so they could fit into the picture, Lorelai smiled when she felt Luke wrap his arm around her waist. She returned his gesture by resting her head against his shoulder as the flash of the camera went off, the teacher took two just to be safe then handed the camera back to Lorelai. She thanked her for taking the picture then she went back to her group, the couples quickly separated as they were asked to dance by their men. Lorelai stood alone with Luke waiting to see if he would ask her to go to the dance floor with him, just when she expected they would be standing in that very spot the rest of the night he turned towards her.

"You wanna dance?" He asked.

"Do you really want to dance or are you just asking because you feel like you are supposed to since everyone else is dancing? Because if you don't want to we can go sit down somewhere and watch everyone else make themselves into fools."

"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to."

"Okay, I'll dance with you." She said and Luke held out his hand, she placed her hand inside his and he walked her to the dance floor. He wrapped his free arm around her waist and she put her free hand on his shoulder, they left their other hand intertwined but switched the position of their palms. Luke took a step then she took one too, without any hesitation she was able to follow his every step. As the song went on she felt as if the universe was pushing the two of them together, they had started a good six or so inches apart and now she was pushed up against him resting her head on his shoulder. The song came to an end and a somewhat more upbeat one began, she lifted her head off him and looked at him as they continued to dance. "Where did you learn to dance like this?"

"God given talent." He teased.

"Back to being mystery man, I see."

"What can I say, I enjoy the nickname."

"You know you never told me the third thing about you."

"I'm not sure what you are talking about."

"The night at the police station, you were about to tell me the third one then my parents cut in."

"I'm pretty sure I told you three things."

"No, you told me two and you were in the middle of telling me a third when we were interrupted." Lorelai said and Luke shrugged as if he didn't remember. "You were starting to tell me something you liked."

"I like baseball."

"The way you were acting when you were trying to say it made me feel like it was something a little more meaningful than baseball."

"Baseball is very meaningful to me."

"Even if that is true, I don't think that is what you were going to say." She stopped moving so they were just standing still on the dance floor as the music played, she could tell he wanted to say something. "Luke?"

"I was going to say..." He paused, taking a breathe. "I was going to say I liked you."

"You were?" Lorelai asked surprised.

"Isn't that fact clear by now?" He said as they began dancing again.

"Now it is but you were going to say it that night, I wouldn't have been brave enough to tell you that then."

"Well I was sitting there thinking about what had just happened, as much as angry I felt towards my sister and those idiots she was with and as much fear as I felt about us getting in trouble I couldn't help but think I wouldn't want to be sitting at a police station after committing a crime with anybody else."

"That is very sweet.. In some twisted kind of way." Lorelai said with a chuckle.

Luke smiled. "Maybe it's insane but it's just how I felt."

"I felt that way too." Lorelai said seriously, Luke moved his hand to her cheek and rubbed it gently. She swore she could feel her heart stop beating the second she felt his touch, every touch afterwards felt like electricity. The two were quickly interrupted by a couple bumping into them while dancing, he quickly moved his hand after from her face.

"Sorry." They both said to Luke and Lorelai.

"It's okay." Lorelai said and the couple went back to dancing.

Luke cleared his throat. "I'm really thirsty, and you left our drinks on the floor somewhere so I'm gonna go get a new one. You want anything?" He asked letting both his hands leave her body.

"Ah, yeah that would be good. I want to go check on Sookie and Jackson anyways, make sure they haven't disappeared into a janitorial closet." Lorelai said then he disappeared into the crowd, she walked around awhile till she found Sookie standing by herself. "Hey Sook, you get bored with Jackson already?"

"No, he went to get some drinks. We needed them after all the dancing, and he is surprisingly good at it."

"It seems Luke has the same talent." Lorelai said with a big smile. "Are you having fun?"

"Definitely, how about you?"

"I was always the girl to tease these kinds of dances but I gotta admit I'm having a great time, he really is amazing."

"I'm glad, you two are going to be great together." Sookie said and Lorelai smiled, the two of them heard the mention of Luke's name in a group of teenagers next to them and they both went silent to listen.

"Are you serious?" One of them asked in disbelief.

"The news is going all around school, four different people told me the same thing." Another said.

"Luke really made out with Carrie at the homecoming game?" One asked. Lorelai looked at Sookie shocked, Sookie wore the same expression she did.

"Yes, I heard they were really going at it under the bleachers."

"Isn't he dating that new girl, Lorelai?"

"That's what I heard, he must be seeing both of them."

"Too bad his mom died when he was so young, she could have taught him some lessons on how to treat girls right."

"Well we should have known he would turn out to be a player, no guy can resist girls throwing themselves at them."

Sookie saw the hurt look across Lorelai's face and grabbed her wrist before she could turn away. "Lorelai."

"I need some air." Lorelai said pulling away from her grip and walking away, Sookie spotted Luke walking towards her.

"The chaperones working the event refused to give me more cups of punch, they said someone fell over the cups Lorelai left on the floor and had to leave early." Luke said, as soon as he finished talking he felt a slap across his face. He grabbed the part of his face that had already begun to sting and he looked at Sookie in shock. "Sookie! What the hell was that for?"

"You know what that was about you scum pile of garbage, you cheated on Lorelai!" She said angrily.

"Cheated? What are you talking about?" Luke asked, unsure of what was going on.

"With Carrie, you made out with her under the bleachers at the homecoming game."

"I did not make out with crazy Carrie."

"Oh yeah, then why is the whole school talking about it!"

Luke shook his head as he started realizing what had happened. "This is it, this is what she did."

"What who did?"

"Carrie! She kept hitting on me and I told her to back off because I was with Lorelai now, she got mad and told me I would regret it later before she stormed off."

"You didn't cheat on Lorelai?" Sookie asked.

"Of course not, I would never do that!"

"Oh." Sookie said, coming to realization. "Sorry about the slap, and the whole scum garbage thing."

"Where is Lorelai?"

"After she heard about it she booked it out of here, said she was going to get some air." As soon as the words left Sookie's mouth Luke ran off in the other direction, he found his way outside of the school and saw Lorelai walking across town. He ran after her and when she noticed him she picked up her speed to keep him from reaching her, once she reached a small footbridge he had caught up to her and he placed a hand on her shoulder holding her back.

"Lorelai, stop. I need to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk to you, as matter of fact I don't want to be anywhere near you right now." She said as she turned around to face him, if it wasn't for the tears lining her eyes the strength of her voice would have made him believe she angry for wasting her time but he could tell in her expression how hurt she was.

"Lorelai, I didn't do anything with Carrie." He pleaded.

"That's not what the whole school is saying, apparently the two of you were really going at it."

"I'm not a cheater, Lorelai." Luke said, harsher than he intended it to be. "I like you, that's why I came to this stupid dance in the first place. Carrie was pissed at me because I told her to leave me alone, that I was with you and she made up this lie to get back at me. I did not kiss her at the homecoming game, I wasn't even at the homecoming game. I was working at my dad's store and he can confirm it if you don't believe me." He explained, he put his hand on her arm and she finally made eye contact with him again. "Lorelai, do you believe me?"

Lorelai nodded. "I believe you." She said while wiping the tears from her eyes. "But I don't think I'm cut out for dating you." She said and his hand dropped from her arm. "You make me feel too much, I never wanted to be that stupid girl who falls apart when a guy breaks her heart."

"I won't break your heart, Lorelai. I could never do that."

"I don't think I can take that chance." Lorelai said and walked past him heading off the bridge.

Luke took a sharp breath as he watched her walking away, he knew he had to speak up now or he might never get the opportunity again. "I took a chance on you." He said shakily, she stopped walking and stood still in place. "I don't open up to anyone but I let myself with you." He said taking steps towards her as he talked. "It was terrifying and I could hardly bring myself to do it but I did." He said as got right behind her. "I did because I felt something with you I had never felt with someone before and maybe it's stupid because we are just a couple of fifthteen year olds who don't know anything about life yet but I know that if you take a chance on with me I will do everything I can to never let you down."

Lorelai sniffed before turning around to face him. "One chance?"

"That's all I'm asking for." He said before running his hand through her hair.

"You got it." She said and as if it were a command they both leaned in and kissed each other, it was long but very gentle and sweet.

Luke pulled away and smiled at her. "Now I seem remember we were supposed to be dancing."

"You want to go back to the dance?" Lorelai asked disappointed, all she wanted to do was be alone with him a little longer.

"No, let's dance right here."

"Dancing on a bridge, that doesn't seem insane at all." She joked and he held out his hand. "We don't have any music."

"We don't need music, just follow my lead."

Lorelai smiled then took his hand, they wrapped themselves in each other's arms then started dancing. "Are you going to tell me where you learned to dance so good?"

"My mom taught me, she said the best men knew how to lead."

"You miss her, your mom?"

"How did you know she-"

Lorelai cut in. "Some students brought it up at the dance."

"I do miss her, you kind of remind me of her." He sees Lorelai smile and start to open her mouth then he stops her. "Not in a weird way, you two just have a similar energy. She always teased my dad a lot and she was very into food, how she stayed so thin I will never understand."

"She sounds like a great lady."

"She was." Luke said sadly.

"How did she-" Lorelai cut herself off.

"Die?" He asked.

"I wasn't sure I should ask."

"Food poisoning, not from any of her cooking because she knew what she was doing but one evening her and a friend went to a restaurant that served bad chicken."

"I didn't know that could kill you."

"It's rare that it will but with her it was really bad case and the doctors said her immune system was very weak, she was in the hospital a little under a day with lots of pain."

"That must have been a hard thing to go through, seeing you mom like that."

"It might have been harder if I was older, I thought she would be okay." He stopped to spin her around once. "Being young and naive has its perks sometimes."

"How did your sister take it?"

"Pretty hard, the were extremely close."

"When did she start acting out?"

"A couple years ago.. It started small, she came home from school one day with a hickey on her neck."

"What did your dad do?"

"We didn't let him find out, as soon as I saw it I ran her to Miss Patty's and she covered it up with makeup. Everytime she would do something wrong I would intersect, she would steal something, I'd pay for it. She come home late, I'd cover for her. She sneaks out of school at lunch time and I open the window in her next classroom so she can get back in without getting caught."

Lorelai chuckled. "You're early departure from lunch finally makes sense to me."

"I wouldn't do it but she got caught coming in the front doors so many times that I felt like it was the only way to keep our dad from finding out."

"That's good you always have her back."

"What good is it doing? She's still out getting herself in trouble."

"It may not seem like it yet but one day she is gonna change and you will have helped her do it." Lorelai said and moved closer to him as they danced. "I've done a lot of stupid things myself and I never had anyone to take my side, you don't know what it meant to me that night you convinced my parents it wasn't my fault what happened."

"It wasn't your fault, you didn't deserve to be blamed for something after you did nothing wrong."

"Or in gym class, I didn't really fall and you knew it but you covered for me anyways. We only knew each other two days and you already had my back, I had friends who I'd known for years who would never do that for me."

"I could tell you were worth defending, behind all the insanity and terrible eating habits you are a good person."

"And you know your sister is worth it too, behind all the trouble she is just a girl who was dealt a tough life and needs someone to look over her."

"You are amazing, you know that?"

"Oh, I know." She says with a smile, he leaned in and kisses her softly. "We should get back to the dance, Sookie is probably thinking I strangled you to death with my bare hands."

"After how mad I saw you get, I believe you could really do it."

"You might want to remember that in future events."

Luke let her go and linked his arm with hers as they walked, Lorelai looked over at him with a smile. "What?" He asked.

"You told Carrie I was with you?"

"Aren't you?"

"Do you want me to be?"

Luke chuckled. "Do you really need to ask?"

"It'd be nice to hear." She said then he stopped and stood in front of her.

"Lorelai Gilmore, I would like to be with you."

Lorelai smirked. "I can't believe I got you to say that, do I get to wear your letterman jacket too now?"

He shook his head then went back to walking. "And I'm already regretting my decision."

Lorelai reached out her hand grabbing his arm and pulling him back into a kiss. "We are really good at that."

"Doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement, we should keep practicing." Luke said kissing her again, a few moments later she pushed him away.

"The dance Luke." Lorelai said then he wrapped her back into his arms as they walked.

What turned out to be one giant roller coaster of a night ended with her dancing in the arms of her new titled boyfriend, too wrapped up in each other they both blocked out all the noise around them of the students gossiping and enjoyed their evening together. Now that they were official the fear Lorelai had been feeling had been lifted, all she felt was peace and comfort now and she hoped that feeling would never go away again.


End file.
